The Sand Boy
by LeetheKazekage
Summary: A girl who goes by the name Kasai wakes up in a hospital in Suna and has no memory of how she got there. She has no memory of her mission with Group 7, the whirlwind of vicious snakes, or the strange boy who floated on sand. All she remembers is falling asleep in her apartment back in Konoha. So what happened that night when she was returning home from the mission?
1. OC Review (Can Skip)

Name: Kasaisuna Akuma

Age: 14

Rank: Jonin

Appearance: Her skin is an olive color. Hair is wavy and short, barely is long enough to go past her ears, and is a silvery white. Her eyes are a bright crimson colour and almost glitter in the dark. Her face is narrow and covered in scars, most notable is the long scar across her little nose. She is short compared to most people, but she has more muscles than other shinobi. She is averagely built. Her nails are catlike and are useful when she uses her taijutsu. She has the kanji mark for 'hate' carved onto her back and it takes up the entire back.

Personality: She is rude, arrogant, and careless. Often seen as a plain bitch by fellow comrades, she has no problem with handling tough situations. Although seemingly dull-minded at times, Kasai has random moments of pure genius thoughts. She loves the life of a shinobi and enjoys the feeling of fighting, although she tends to get carried away in battle.

Key Information: -She was born with two kekkei genkais, which she refuses to use along with Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. -Orochimaru took her in when she was young and raised her as one of his students. -At the age of ten, a ritual was done to place a Shinigami in her. -She was abandoned in Konoha after the said ritual. -Due to her intensive training with Orochimaru, which has remained a secret to fellow villagers, she was able to become a Jonin by the age of fourteen.

Living Family Members: None.

 _ **When parts of the story look like this, it is like a flashback.**_

 ** _'When something looks like this, it means Oten is speaking in her head'_**

 _"When a sentence is like this, it is when she is speaking in her own head"_

 **"When it looks like this, it means Oten is speaking out loud."**

 _Hey guys! I will be posting a chapter around every two days, but if you want more visit my Wattpad page. There are already over 25 chapters there. Now, onto the real story!_


	2. The Sand Boy: Part 1

**_"Kasaisuna, help us for once!" Sasuke's sneer made me stand up again, even with three kunai wedged between my ribs._**

 ** _'I told him to call me Kasai... Idiot...' I thought to myself, seeing as it was not a wonderful time to correct him out loud. My silky white hair flipped frantically against my head. It was short, barely reaching my chin, but the mighty wind made it swing violently and smack me across my scarred nose._**

 ** _It was supposed to be a simple task. We were to lead a young pottery merchant back to Sand Village. Not hard to mess up, right? Well, my team was composed of three equally idiotic children and a stubborn sensei, so it was destined to happen._**

 ** _First, there was Sakura. Her baby pink hair basically screamed 'Hey, I am the damsel in distress waiting for my handsome prince to save me~!' Sure, my hopes were high when I first met her. I thought that maybe, just maybe, that she would have some incredible secret talent behind those innocent green eyes. Sadly, like most other younger ninjas, she disappointed me. However, I hoped she would be turn out to be like my mom and become an amazing healer or archer one day._**

 ** _Next was Sasuke. I heard hushed rumors about him back at the Leaf Village. He was an Uchiha, the last apparently. Personally, despite his cold attitude and the bloodlust forming in his eyes, he was my favorite of the three. His past was unclear to me, but I could see a future full of fame and success for him. Yet, deep down, I knew that he wouldn't be on the good side forever. None of them ever stayed._**

 ** _And finally, my least favorite: Naruto. An arrogant, egotistic, rowdy, immature, troublesome, annoying brat with absolutely no control of his stupidity. I swear, I contemplated several ways I could kill him just so he would shut the hell up. How hard is it? Still, even though I had no positive feelings for him, I did pity him. A parentless child harboring a malicious demon in his body and he acted unfazed. I know I was being soft, but what was it like to be that?_**

 ** _Then I remembered: I was like that._**

 ** _Pushing the memory of my past away, I focused back on to the battle. Their sensei, although one of the best ninjas in our village, somehow got our caravan 'lost' in the desert. I never bought the story, but the look of surprise he had on his face when a group of bandits, led by our wonderful pottery merchant, attacked us seemed genuine. My original thought of the whole mission being a clever test was shattered when a man in a grey cloak lodged a kunai into my ribcage. Then another right below that. And one more, for good luck. It would have killed many others, especially kids like the ones I was with, but my team members knew I could not fall so easily._**

 ** _The god inside me would not let such a thing happen._**

 ** _No, I did not have a tailed-beast within me. I had a death god in me. I literally had death itself inside me. Most people knew of the tale of the white haired child with blood red eyes and no visible shadow, but none of them realized my strength. At its worse, it could rival the power of the Kurama. Hard to believe, but there were legends and myths of battles between gods of death and the tailed-beasts._**

 ** _So the bandits never saw me coming as I sliced all their throats in seconds. I moved faster than light, becoming a mere blur as I weaved my way through the herd of dazed men. I would say there were about fifty of them; my group had successfully taken down twelve but they were growing weak, so I finished the job. Once done, I stood in front of my now panting companions._**

 ** _"Jee... Thank... You... Kasaisuna..." Naruto tried to thank me, but his heavy breathing made it a tedious effort. "You... Are... Almost...Even more... Awesome... Than me!"_**

 ** _Sakura, who had never really never spoken to me, glanced up from where she slumped up against auburn boulder. "Yeah, thanks... Kasaisuna..."_**

 ** _Sasuke simply nodded at me while their- I mean, 'our' sensei- glared at me with suspicious eyes. I bet he was wondering why Hokage would send someone like me with them._**

 ** _I turned to the two who had spoken. "I told you guys to call me Kasai. Now come on, we should head back."_**

 ** _All of the members of our team agreed. After several more moments where they stood around catching their breath, we began our way back to the Leaf Village. None of us spoke. I walked about a yard or two behind the group, seeing as I was my usual anti-social self and hated people. The sensei, who I refused to learn the name of, would always send me a untrusting glance from over his shoulder. He didn't know what to think of me._**

 ** _We were getting close to the edge of the desert when I swore I began to hear faint whispers surrounding me._**

 ** _"Come back to me..."_**

 ** _"We need you now..."_**

 ** _"The time has come for the ritual... Kasaisuna..."_**

 ** _My feet stopped mid-step. I slowly spun around, trying to locate the voices that spoke to me, but there were no others around. I only saw endless sand dunes, falling and rising while drenched in the moonlight. The others had stopped to watch me with raised brows, curious to see what I was thinking._**

 ** _"Kasai, what is it?" The sensei eyed me carefully, still trying to figure out my motives._**

 ** _"Did any of you just hear those voices? I swore I just did."_**

 ** _All of them shook their heads vigorously. Deciding it was just my imagination, I shrugged it off and continued walking. It wasn't long after that I was attacked by them._**

 ** _The green snakes that appeared from nowhere._**

 ** _There were too many of them for me to count, but they easily could have been in the hundreds. All I could see was ivy scales and my blood being splashed around carelessly._**

 ** _Most of the snakes just bit my arms and legs, but one of the damned things sunk its fangs into my neck. That one was the worst. He seemed vaguely human, for when his sharp teeth settled he seemed to smile and laugh. I assumed that the poison was just getting to me as that was just absurd._**

 ** _As soon as the smirking reptile bit me, the whole horde of the them let me go. Whatever toxin they had in them most have been nasty, because I couldn't move. I just fell backwards, letting the warm sand engulf me in a desert embrace._**

 ** _The last thing I remember is seeing my team being attacked. There were snakes and a man walking away unnoticed by my busy team. I knew that figure and it was then I realized the seriousness of the situation._**

 ** _"Orochimaru..." The words barely slid through my lips as my vision faded._**

 ** _I did wake up again, but that was when I met the Sand Boy. That was when my real journey began._**

~:*^*:~

The rays of thin moonlight casted rolling shadows across the sand, making the desert look like a golden sea. My group had left me... I knew they would eventually, I knew my wounds looked fatal and that our enemy wouldn't have spared a soul on normal occasions, but they should've at least taken my body back to the village. My mind was in constant turmoil as a storm of emotions flooded my thoughts. Anger, sadness, betrayal... The last one hurt the most.

Seeing as no one was going to save me this time, I tried pushing myself off of the grainy mountain. The searing pain of sand entering the deep gash on my side caused me to yelp in agony and tumble down towards a ditch. My energy was drained and the fire in my spirit left me. The blood loss was finally hitting me. Black spots started to blind me and a siren-like ringing deafened me. I felt my body stop rolling. My tired mind assumed I had reached the bottom of the fall, but if I had looked I would have seen that I was trapped in a pocket of shimmering sand.

The blurriness in my eyes gradually got worse to the point where I couldn't distinguish the falling full moon from the distant city. Yet, even through all of that, I saw a figure of a boy float towards me. He didn't seem to be walking. It was more like the sand was carrying him towards me. Finally, he was only a foot away from me. He knelt down and inspected my bloody face. I couldn't make out his features, but his bold, minty green eyes stared into my crimson ones. They were the only things I could look at.

After several moments he stood up again. Many indistinguishable mutters could be heard, but the few words I heard seemed foreign. It was like he was talking to someone else, but no one stood by him. A couple of minutes passed and I felt my body beginning to tremble from the toxin coursing through my veins. Apparently the green eyed boy took notice and strode over to my body again. He bent over, this time leaning so close to me that our noses nearly touched. The metallic smell of blood and fresh ash radiated off of him. His deep, rugged voice was the last thing I heard and possibly the one thing that kept me from giving into death. Although just a single word, it gave me more hope than my team had ever given me.

He said, almost demanded, _"Mine."_ I'm sure I looked shocked as I closed my heavy eyelids, hoping I would wake up to see this boy again.

~:*^*:~

I was woken up by a blinding light flashing directly in front of me. Actually, it was more above me as I was laying down on a thin mattress with a metal frame. My head was pounding, and the constant flash of the light fixture wasn't helping.

I tried to sit up, but my body would not cooperate. My arms and legs just flailed about, making me seem like a stupid fish out of water. Deciding to give it a rest, I looked around my room. Everything was a shade of grey; my nightstand, the thick curtains, every wall. It was so dull. My attention, however, was quickly grabbed by a red-head sitting in the corner. His arms were folded across his chest in obvious displeasure. His green eyes stared at me, never wavering.

Then I remembered a pair of minty marbles watching me in the desert, but it was all I could think of. It was like some of my memory had been erased. Although flustered at my forgetfulness, I decided I should try and figure out where I was.

"Hey there, red-head. Mind telling' me where the hell I am? I'm kind of confused."

I expected an answer, but he remained silent.

"Alright, I can see you're not a talker, but can you please tell me? This doesn't look like my village."

Once again, the boy was silent.

"Fine, be that way. I'm not going to shut up, though. I'm just going to keep talkin' and talkin'. My name is Kasai, in case you're wonderin'. I bet you don't care, though."

He closed his eyes. It looked like I had annoyed him more. I was about to continue with my stupid barrage of words, but the medical sign on the wall made me realize my location.

"Wait, I'm in a hospital?! Tell me what you know, boy! Why am I here?!"

I began to panic. What little logic I had ever had was dismissed in that moment as I screamed and shouted my concerns. What else should I have done? Been calm? Nah, I wasn't a 'calm' kind of person.

"Damn it, why won't you answer me?!"

It looked like he was considering whether not to tell me something, but the sound of a creaky door opening made both of us snap our heads towards it. Two kids around our age stood there, looking a little puzzled and surprised. The blonde with four ponytails was the first to speak.

"Little brother, who is she?" Her trembling finger pointed towards me. I wondered why she was shaking. Cold? Fear?

The boy with strange purple marks smeared across his face stepped into the room. "Aye, she's a pretty one. Where'd you find her?" He was leaning against the wall and smugly staring at me. I didn't like him.

"Kankuro, the poor girl's barely dressed! Quit looking at her like that!" The girl hit Kankuro, the boy with face paint, rather hard. He face-planted on the silver paneled floor.

I looked down at my garments. It was basically just a strip of fabric tightly covering the front of my thin body, leaving both of my sides exposed. Although I quickly yanked the dark blanket to cloak me, I took note of the small puncture marks painting my skin. Many were sewn up, but a few were small enough to leave alone.

"No need to be nice, Temari, not like we're a team or anything..." Kankuro's grumblings brought me back to the conversation. He was shaking his fists at Temari, who lightly kicked the idiot again.

"Excuse me you two, but uh, can you tell me what's goin' on? Why am I here?" I interrupted their family time. Both were startled by my voice, which was rather loud and deep for a girl, but quickly regained their composure.

"Well, uh, eh..." Temari looked nervous as she stuttered. She paled slightly when she turned towards the redhead, as if she were asking for permission to speak.

I shook my head. "Come on, spit it out! I'm not a patient person!" Once again, she looked at me with an expression of bewilderment.

"Fine, I'll say it! You were-!" Kankuro had stood up and began to shout at me, but he was interrupted as sand grabbed a hold of his wrists and slammed him against the wall. A gasp of pain came from the paint fool while Temari covered her mouth with her hand. I watched the whole scene, not really interested to be honest. That was until I realized _sand_ had just pushed Kankuro, who I could guess was strong, away to make him stop talking.

Temari gave a small, shaky laugh. "Gaara, lets not scare the girl. Little brother? Please stop."

The redhead finally looked up at me again. His eyes locked with mine, instantly making me shrink back. I don't know what it was, but he made me feel weak. I noticed the chipped jar he carried on his back and saw sand trailing out of it. Before I could question any of it he spoke, leaving me breathless and excited.

"Go."

Okay, yeah, it was just a word, but it was more than I could have gotten out of him. As he said it, the sand that held Kankuro let go and went back to Gaara, the redhead, to go in the jar. The two nodded and exited the room with faces of shame. It was weird that they listened to him like that. He was obviously their leader, not doubt about that, but it was as if he controlled them. It didn't matter. All I needed to know was that I shouldn't screw with Gaara.

Once the door was shut, I looked back at the green eyed boy. He sat there like usual, with his arms crossed and watching me. I had to make him talk to me.

"Do you want to talk to me? Are you just gonna sit there and be all creepy like that?" I gestured towards him. All he did was sigh and close his eyes again.

 _ **'So this is the boy. I have heard of him, but never seen him. How interesting.'**_

I gasped. It had been months since the god within me spoke. He was a Shinigami and liked to be called one, but I liked to call him Oten.

 _"Oten, what do you mean? You have heard of this Gaara? Can you tell me about him?"_

I heard his thundering laugh roar through my mind. **_'I can't talk about him, it would be breaking some rules, but I can get him to talk.'_**

 _"How? I must speak to him, Oten. He knows what happened to me."_

 _ **'Tell him you must speak with Shukaku. That should get the beast to speak.'**_

Rolling my eyes, I spoke out loud again. I hoped Gaara would listen, too. If he didn't, Oten might hurt me.

"Gaara, I need to speak with Shukaku."

"No." His eyes were wide and his scowl only worsened. He had no intention on letting this Shukaku thing speak.

"Please?"

"No."

I realized this argument was going to get me nowhere. _"Oten, now what? I don't think this brat is goin' to talk to me."_

I received no reply. The damn shinigami was always doing that to me. He would tell me to do something, which wouldn't work, and then disappeared for months. My luck, getting stuck with a death god.

A sudden wave of fatigue hit me. I knew I shouldn't sleep, but even with the danger of Oten killing me I could barely keep my eyes open, so I leaned back onto my bed. "Well, I'm goin' to shut up now. Its obvious you don't want to talk."

As I was closing my eyes, he spoke again. "No."

"Huh?" Confusion took over.

"Talk."

Gaara liked being vague apparently. "Talk? About what?"

This time, the redhead stayed silent. I sighed, seeing as I would have to think of something. How troublesome.

"Well, I guess I'll talk about myself then. It started fourteen years ago, on the day I was born..." I was so going to regret this later...

 ***The cover was made by the talented Yukiko_Deira on Wattpad***


	3. The Sand Boy: Part 2

"I was born to a family with no wealth and no place in society. They barely made enough to feed my sister and I, let alone afford a place to lived in the woods, sleepin' in trees and eatin' berries for food. Not the life I wanted to live, but we never really had a choice. People knew who my dad was, even I don't know who he was, and they hated him. They wouldn't let him enter villages because of his past and they wouldn't let us go because they said we were probably 'contaminated'. I never really learned what that meant.

"One day, when I was about three, a man as pale as the winter's snow came up to us. He pretended to be hurt so he could get close to our group. After he gained our trust, he killed them. He killed my family right in front of me. First he strangled my older sister, I think her name was Mizu, with a vine. Then he cut my mom to shreds. Then my dad, well, the man had his beast eat him. I watched everything, never once cryin' for them. To be honest, I never liked my family. Sister would poison animals and watch them die for fun; mom would always do things with traveling men for money; and my dad would beat us all. So my tears were not wasted on their cold corpses.

"After he finished with them, he came over to me. His name was Orochi, I learned his full name later, and that I should go with him. I did, seeing as I wanted a friend. I was with him and this group of strange people for years. I don't remember much from those days, but I remember them forming circles around me and doing strange rituals. They told me they were trying to summon a god. They successfully did and he is my Shinigami. The group put the god in me, so now he's trapped. I have no idea why they did it, nor do I care to be honest.

"Next thing I remember was waking up on hospital bed like this when I was ten. It was in the Leaf Village, a place I eventually learned to call home. They trained me to be a ninja which wasn't too hard seeing as I was taught some things from Orochi. I succeeded and became a Jonin last year due to hard work and perfect marks, plus the Hokage was impressed by my skills even though I only use Taijutsu. After that they would assign me to go on missions with various team leaders to see how well they taught their students and to grade them accordingly. I did my job well, so they tolerated me.

"Now, well, I don't really know. I have no idea where I am or how I got here. I was hoping someone would tell me, but you scared away my only chance. Thanks by the way, asshole. Anyway, I really don't care for my future. People, other than Hokage, don't like me. People try to kill me because I hold Oten in me. They think I'm an evil being that will destroy the ways of the village and that I should have never been born. It doesn't faze me, though. They treat the fox boy worse than me. He has the nine-tailed beast in him. Poor kid.

"So, yeah, that's me in a nutshell. I'm leaving out some things because they aren't very pleasant to talk about, but you get the idea." By this time I was fully sitting with my long legs crossed, waiting for some sort of reaction from Gaara. He flinched when I talked about the nine-tailed beast in Naruto, but that was it. He didn't do anything else.

Half of that story was an elaborate lie, but it was a decent one for he didn't notice. I mean, how would he know that I actually killed my family? He wouldn't, so I was safe.

Several minutes of silence passed before he finally did something. I mean, he just kinda stood up, but it was better than nothing. I was smiling before I realized he was walking towards the door. Sure, he wasn't really good for company, but I was going to get lonely by myself.

"Hey! Are you leavin' already? Can I ask just one thing before you leave and you actually answer it? Please?"

He stopped and turned to look at me. I took it as a yes, seeing as he really wasn't much of a talker.

 _ **'Ask him what Shukaku is and why you can't talk to him.'**_

 _"Oten, why must you be so demanding? I can do what I want."_

 _ **'Do as I say, foolish human.'**_

Knowing it was pointless to argue with the stubborn shinigami, I inquired, "What is this Shukaku and why can't I speak with it?"

Gaara wasn't pleased with my question. He sent me this look that immediately sent me under the covers, huddled into a little ball and hoping he would leave me alone after my idiocy.

I heard the sound of pouring sand and realized I was screwed. Nothing good could come from that sound, especially with Gaara involved. I bet he was dangerous when mad, and I was sure I royally pissed him off. His strength was incredible, I saw what he did to Kankuro. So when I heard it sliding closer to me, I was on the verge of jumping out a window. However, I never felt the grainy feeling strangle me or stab my stomach repeatedly. No, what came next was completely unexpected.

The sand crept under the blanket, crawled on to my arm and made it way towards my wrist. Once there, it just sat there, almost waiting. Finally, after thinking about, it wrapped around my arm and made a small bracelet. It was tight, but it was nice and warm. I liked it.

I peeked out from my makeshift, fuzzy hideout to see Gaara walking out of my room. That didn't surprise me, but the small almost-a-smirk look on his face did. I had originally thought he was completely emotionless, yet he just proved me wrong.

The door was slammed shut as Gaara walked out, leaving me to sit on the boring hospital bed. I looked around the room again and realized I needed to get out of there. That place sucked and I was positive I would have killed myself in there.


	4. The Sand Boy: Part 3

_**Morning birds sang their songs in the large forest. The fiery leaves rustled in the Fall wind, making the tune more enchanting. A girl nearly four years old walked out of her tent, yawning and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Her family's camp was empty because the others were sleeping. That was good for she didn't want them to catch her talking to her friend.**_

 _ **She walked deeper into the woods, dodging the swooping branches and scrambling up steep hills. Finally, she was at the little pond where they met up each day. He was late, but he always said he would be there for the tiny girl. She sat down near the water and began braiding her long, black hair. It was her favorite way to pass time, seeing as she wasn't allowed to play in her camp. The father would beat her if he saw such activity.**_

 _ **Soon she grew worried. What if the man didn't come? She would be lonely again and she wouldn't have gotten her training for the day. Right as she was getting ready to leave, she heard the splashing of water behind her. She spun around, smiling as the man stood on his snake that was gliding around the pond. Her blue eyes brightened up as she giggled and ran towards the edge of the water.**_

 _ **"Orochi! I was sad! Now I am happy because you're here!" She grinned further as she danced around. They always had fun when they met up.**_

 _ **"I would never leave my student. No, not you. You are special." His snake carried him towards the black haired girl. "We must train later. I have things to do today."**_

 _ **"But Orochi, you said we could train today! I want to train with you!" Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. "That makes me happy during the day because everything else is so sad."**_

 _ **The man's pale lips turned into a disappointed frown. There were a few moments of silence as he thought and watched her cry. Finally, he smiled again.**_

 _ **"How about we train later tonight?"**_

 _ **The girl sniffled and nodded her head. "I'd like that. But mommy and daddy and sister would be mad if I left at night. They would yell at me and kick me and hurt me."**_

 _ **"Then I'll talk to them and then we can train together every day for many years. Doesn't that sound nice, my student?" The man bent down and patted her head, taking out a small twig that was stuck in her raven hair while he was at it.**_

 _ **"Yeah! I like that! Everyday for the rest of my life! Thank you, Orochi!" The girl charged at her teacher and hugged him tightly, but he didn't hug back. He never did.**_

 _ **When she had had enough of him, the little girl back away from the pond. She waved her small hand and dashed off, eager for later that night when her teacher would come to train with her.**_

 _ **Her innocent mind had no idea what was to come and if it did, she would have never spoken to the pale man with the snakes.**_


	5. The Sand Boy: Part 4

I looked at the reflection in the mirror and threw my fists into the air. "Damn, I look good!" I had managed to put together an outfit by rummaging through the articles of clothing in my hospital wardrobe.

The top I had was bright red to match my bright crimson eyes. It had no sleeves and covered my neck, seeing as I was kind of ashamed of my strange new bruise on it. I wore a skirt the same color as my shirt with a large slit running up my right leg, revealing a pair of tight black shorts underneath. I had some boots to go along with it that went to my knees. It was nice, even though it wasn't a perfect fit.

However, I knew it would distract people from my pitiful physical features. I can't say that I had self-confidence issues, it was just fact: I wasn't pretty. Hideous burn marks were splattered across my arms and legs from various experiments done on to me. Scars were of abundance on my olive body, the most noticeable being the old slash on my dinky nose. I was far too skinny to be healthy, but I never learned to eat properly in my life so the habit stuck with me, even after I moved into Konoha. The dull shine of my hair was brighter than I would've liked it to be and little children were always fearful of me for my flashy red eyes.

They called me a monster for them, but I was never going to deny it. I was, and still am, a monster. But that didn't matter. I liked being able to kick some ass, even if it meant I had to be scary.

Then there was this bruise on the front of my neck. No matter how hard I thought, I couldn't remember where I got it. It looked more like an elaborate tattoo, but I refused to believe that. That made me think it was one of _his_ marks. He couldn't have put a curse mark on me without me knowing, right? Besides, he told me I was useless to him after the sealing of the Shinigami. I was just a relic of the past that was no longer important, so they threw me aside like a piece of trash. So there was no way he did this to me. I simply got an incredibly detailed bruise on my neck.

Yeah, totally. That's what happened.

I turned my attention back to my outfit. To be completely honest, it reminded me of a slutty version of Sakura's usual attire. I brushed it off though, saying I would get my regular clothes back when I went home.

Something was missing, I knew it was, but I didn't take the time to figure it out. I was tired of being stuck in that tiny room. The nurses barely spoke to me and everyone, including my doctor, said they had no idea what happened to me. What kind of doctor was he? If he couldn't help me, I decided that I would just leave. Besides, I needed to find my team. We were going to go on a mission to the Sand Village and-

I stopped once I had climbed out the window. Blazing heat greeted me while a gush of wind whipped sand into my eyes, making me lose my balance on the thin railing. I fell off where I was standing, but I was apparently only two floors up, so it didn't hurt too much when I landed on the rough ground. It was littered with dead plants and cracks in the earth. That wasn't my village. No, it was the Sand Village, the place I was going to go.

It was a bit of a shock. I mean, the last thing I remember is falling asleep in my house back in my village and then I wake up here in the hospital in Sunagakure. There were pieces to that puzzle missing and I knew I needed to find them.

"I need to get out of here… I need to go home…" I was mumbling to myself as I went to the main street. It was full of huge stores, apartments, and large houses, but the place was nearly empty. Some people were in shops, but not as many as I would have expected from the village.

My feet kept guiding me through different roads, weaving around housing complexes and the occasional feral cat. The hope of escaping was slowly draining out of me, seeing I was searching for the gates for two hours with no success. As I was about to give up, I saw them. I was so happy and excited to start my journey home until I heard Temari's voice from behind me.

"Girl! Where are you going? You can't leave without us!"

I looked over shoulder to see her and Kankuro, both looking panicked.

Face paint boy stepped closer to me. "Why would you want to leave me? I would never leave you-" I slapped that bastard before he could finish. "Okay, I'll shut up..."

"Okay, listen you two. I have no idea how I got here or anything, but I just need to get out of here. I belong to the Leaf Village, and you guys are probably nice people, but I think I can go without you." I started backing away from the two.

Temari spoke again. "No, you really can't go without us. The guards will stop you."

"Yeah, our group is going to escort you back. We were going to go get you from the hospital, but you weren't there."

"So we came here to look for you." Temari added. I just shook my head.

"Well, I'm going to try anyway." Being an idiot like I am, I proudly strutted towards the gates. Just as I was about to step out, the band around my wrist began to tighten. It got worse and worse with each step. Eventually it felt like it was trying to snap my hand off my arm.

"That asshole…" Still, I was stubborn and tried to walk further out of the place. I wasn't going to give up so easily.

"Excuse me miss, but you need to go back." I looked up at a man dressed in all black. He had a buddy that looked exactly like him right beside him. Both obviously meant business. Normally I would've fought them, but my arm was killing me. I could barely move by this point it was so bad.

I gave out a depressed sigh. "Fine, I'll go back." As soon as I said that the pressure on my wrist disappeared.

Dramatically, I turned around and sulked on my through the gates. My skirt trailed off behind me, making it bellow out like a cape. Temari and Kankuro watched me with raised eyebrows and smug looks.

"Welcome back, princess. Couldn't keep away, could you?" That _baka._ I could deal with Temari, but the purple-faced boy was not tolerable.

"Shut up before I beat the crap out have you. Where's the asshole?" My fists were on my hips as I impatiently tapped my foot on the ground.

Temari laughed. "Already giving us names, eh?"

"Yeah. You're _Tema_ , he is the paint bastard," I motioned to Kankuro, who just looked away to try and cover his anger, "And Gaara is the damned asshole. Now where is he?"

The girl kept giggling. "If he heard you, I wouldn't be surprised if he killed you."

"I'm surprised he hasn't yet. You aren't very nice." Kankuro glared at me. I just pretended to be offended at his remark.

"Ah, you see, I'm not here to be friendly. I don't know how I ended up in the Sand Village, but I need to get home and you all are going to slow me down."

The two were going to say something but stopped once they heard a pair of soft footsteps behind them. We were all greeted to a frowning redhead, as expected. The two rambling idiots stayed quiet for once, but I had to give Gaara a piece of my mind. I pushed Temari and Kankuro out of my way and marched towards Gaara. I stopped inches away from him and looked at him. His minty greenish-blue eyes were staring off into space. It was like he wouldn't acknowledge my existence.

"Okay, listen up. I don't need you or those two to watch over me. I can handle myself perfectly well on my own. I don't know who gave you the order, but I want you to go tell him to piss off. I'm not a baby and I'll probably end up babysittin' you three. I mean, look at you all! You guys are- Hey, are you even listenin' to me?! Gaara!" He just growled at me, which made things even worse. "You asshole! First you won't tell me what happened to me even though I'm positive you know, then you give me this band that hurts like hell if I try to leave, and now you're just ignoring' everything I say! What is it with you?! Talk!"

He just stayed silent. Not once did he look at me. Boy, Gaara knew how to make me angry. I knew I never handled my emotions very well, but what I did next was unexpected and astonishing.

I slapped him.


	6. The Sand Boy: Part 5

Gasps erupted from the two behind me. I glanced at them to see their horrified looks. Temari was visibly shaking and looked like she was about to collapse from panic. Kakuro gawked at me like I had grown an extra head and seemed to be mentally preparing for a fight.

Suddenly thinking I made a mistake, I gulped and turned back to Gaara. His hand was now over his cracked cheek and he had taken a step back. Bits of sand were falling from his chipping face and I saw that he had on an armor of his dust. I wished I had a camera with me because the look on his face was priceless. He looked like a freaking fish with his mouth open wide. I would have been laughing if I knew he wasn't going to hurt me, but at the time I was scared.

The bracelet on my wrist tightened for a brief moment and saw Gaara start shaking. I backed up slowly with my hands raised like I was surrendering. My only goal was not to die, which I think is reasonable.

"H-Hey, I'm sorry… I didn't mean t-to do that… Gaara?" I can't believe I was stuttering. I never stuttered. Never.

He started to calm down after that. His face was different than before. It wasn't as harsh and his frown was not as deep, but he didn't look too thrilled. After an awkward pause, he walked towards his teammates like nothing had happened. It was an interesting situation to say the least.

"We leave tomorrow. Take her back to the house and stay there tonight." His voice was monotone, surprising after what had just happened. Once he had said that he disappeared in a cloud of sand, leaving us standing on the streets with dumbstruck faces.

Kankuro put his hand behind his head. "Well, eh, guess you're staying with us tonight..."

"Hey, we never learned your name." Temari was in a defensive stance, whether she realised it or not.

"My name's Kasai..." I could barely cough that out as I stared at the place Gaara had stood. "Is he mad at me...?"

The two of the exchanged a worried glance. "We have no idea. Nobody touches him. Ever."

"If they do, they die." Temari said that so easily, making me scratch my scalp nervously.

"So, want to show me your guy's place?" I tried to change the subject before my anxiety kicked in. Although a pretty damn good ninja, I still had the ability to be scared.

They nodded and began to walk away, me trailing far behind. I paid no attention to where we walking or my surroundings. My mind was to ensnared with earlier events.

I hit Gaara. The man people seemed to cower from, the person that couldn't be touched, had been slapped by me, of all people.

 _"Is he goin' to kill me? Am I goin' to die? What do I do?"_

' _ **Fool, you can't die unless I kill you. It's impossible.'**_

I grunted in mild amusement. _"Look who decided to show up."_

' _ **Why did you hit the boy?'**_

 _"You know my temper. If I'm mad, I'm goin' to take it out on somebody. He happened to be the one who pissed me off and he was right there, so..."_

I heard Oten chuckle, clearly amused with my mortal life. ' _ **You must be nice to him. He has Shukaku in him.'**_

 _"Why are you so obsessed with the 'Shukaku' person? You act like Sakura about Sasuke!"_

' _ **Just do as I say, fool.'**_ I felt his presence disappear after that. He always left me without any explanation. I hated my Shinigami.

My thoughts were broken up with the squeaky opening of a door. I hadn't noticed we had arrived to a shabby red house with two stories. There were several windows, each with brown curtains closed. Cracks ran up and down on the outside, reminding me of Gaara's gourd.

" _Wait, why am I thinkin' of him?! Stop it, Kasai, get it together."_ I found it strange I thought of him.

Kankuro told me to wait in their living room while he and Temari went to go talk in private. I poked around, looking for something to keep me occupied, but I couldn't find anything interesting in that messy place. Being the nosy person I was, I decided to eavesdrop a little. I snuck around the corner until I was right by the kitchen opening. They were standing by the stove having a hushed argument while Temari cooked something. It smelled absolutely dreadful.

"And where else is she going to sleep? She can't sleep on the couch, she could sneak out." Temari was almost shouting as she flipped a pan.

"Yeah, I get that, but won't he be mad?"

"No, he's going to be out the whole night. It's almost a full moon, Kankuro. Besides, he doesn't sleep." Was she talking about Gaara?

"Even so, we shouldn't risk her life like this. He already probably hates her and if he knows she was in his room-"

Temari just laughed. "Gaara doesn't hate her. His sand didn't protect him from her, so she must be important."

The paint fool sighed in defeat. "Fine, but if he hurts her then I'm going to be so mad at you."

I probably should have told them I didn't sleep at all. If I did, Oten could easily kill me. It was a risk every time I fell into unconsciousness.

"Alright brother. Now try this for me and tell me what it needs." She held out a spoon of a goopy and chunky brown sauce that seemed to move like jello.

Kankuro pinched the bridge of his nose and reluctantly took a small bite to taste. The effect was almost immediate. He began shuddering while making gurgling noises and holding back bile. Rushing to the nearest trash can, he spit it out and began cursing as he puked. I was trying my hardest to not laugh my ass off at his misery.

Once finished, he slowly turned his sickly green face to a now angry Temari. "I say it needs to be thrown in the trash…"

She instantly pounced on to him and began to punch the idiot, howling about how mean he was. By then I couldn't help snicker at the two of them. Even though they didn't look like siblings, and I almost doubted that they were, they acted so much like them.

Both of them shot their heads up when they saw me rolling on the floor in a fit of giggles. When I saw them staring at me, I gave them a shy smile.

"Oh, was I interruptin' somethin'?" Both paused for a moment before bursting out laughing; I joined in too. It wasn't very funny, but we all somehow found ourselves enjoying ourselves together.

Minutes passed and we eventually were recollecting ourselves, shooting each other amused smirks.

"So, since my food is so bad, what are we going to do for dinner?" Temari finally broke our silence. My head whipped towards her with a face full of excitement, something I rarely felt so strongly.

"Mind if I cook? I love cookin'!" I was about to start jumping around, but I knew I shouldn't act that way in front of these two. Although they liked having fun, they weren't the childish kind of people.

"I mean, if you want to." She shrugged and looked and Kankuro, waiting for a response. He simply nodded before swiftly walking out. It looked like he was still sick from earlier.

" _I hope they have some good food or ingredients here…"_ I looked in their fridge and nearly lost it at what I saw.

A fridge full of blood, tongues, and gizzards. At least they had some damn fine cabbage...


	7. The Sand Boy: Part 6

_**The girl skipped on her way back to her camp, making no noise as her feet hit the mossy forest floor. Her braided hair bounced off her back with each jump, making her laugh. The mornings when she would leave her camp were the most fun she could have, for the family she lived with practically outlawed 'fun'.**_

 _ **During the day, she was to remain silent. If the small group had a visitor she was to go into her tent and not come out until she was told to. When she made any sort of noise, whether it was a sneeze or a whisper, her father would beat her to a bloody pulp. If she got in trouble with her dad, then her mom wouldn't feed her the scraps of dinner. When mother was mad at the girl, then sister was allowed to torture the girl. The whole family was against her and she knew it. That's why she hated them and trained with the Orochi man.**_

 _ **She said that she planned to kill them one day and the pale man, who was very intrigued by her early instinct to kill, promised to help her learn how to.**_

 _ **The only thing she could think about was later that night. All she wanted was to train with him. She was too distracted by this to see that she was back her camp. Her older sister was the one to snap her out of it by shoving the blue eyed girl to the ground.**_

" _ **Well well, look who decided to come crawling back to us. Where were you, maggot?" The older of the two swept her golden locks out her face while kicking the other in the face.**_

 _ **The little one held her cheek in the palm of her scratched hand. "I-I just w-went for a walk, Mizu…" There was the snapping sound of bones being crushed as the blonde kicked the girl in the ribs.**_

" _ **My name is Demizu, you little idiot. Stop crying, you'll never be good enough anyway." She leaned forwards with hateful violet eyes. "I would kill you here and now, but father says he wants to do that himself. He even asked mommy if he could do it and she said yes. They both hate you, so I do too."**_

" _ **But Demizu… We're family… Families love each other."**_

" _ **I could never love a burden like you. Now go to your tent, mommy's with a guest." Demizu tapped the girl with her foot, trying to make her crawl away.**_

 _ **She did as she told so she wouldn't get hurt anymore. Once there, she zipped it up but left a small hole so she could peak out. She waited for the older sister to leave for the day, knowing she would be gone hours to look for critters to toy with, so she could go and apologize to her mother. She wanted her family to accept her because even though she said she had wanted to kill them, the girl never intended to do it. Despite their hate towards her, she loved them and she didn't even know why.**_

 _ **The noon sun rose high into the sky and marked the time that Demizu usually left. She stood in the middle of the camp, quickly tying the golden strands of hair into a ponytail before disappearing into the trees. There was some rustling of leaves as she jumped away, but soon the older sister was long gone.**_

 _ **Once she was sure Demizu had left, the girl slipped out her shelter. She was determined to find her mom and beg for mercy. The girl didn't want to die before Orochi came to train her for many years. She wanted to see her friend again.**_

 _ **The girl went to her mom's tent but found it was empty. She circled around their grounds, looking for any sign of the huge woman, but there was nothing to find. That was until she saw some bushes moving around. Cautiously, she snuck over to the biggest shrub and peaked through.**_

 _ **There was a man attacking her mom. She was groaning in agony and pounding at the forest floor with a balled fist. There were tears running down her face as the man smirked, obviously enjoying the pain he was causing.**_

 _ **The girl jumped back, scared for her and her mom's life. What if the man killed her mother and came after her next? The thought was unbearable.**_

 _ **She looked for a weapon to hit the man with. There were no visible ones, but there was a discarded pack by the bush. She slid towards it and dug around its contents. A single kunai laid on the bottom, shining in the thin rays of light that made their way through the trees.**_

 _ **After grabbing it, the girl muttered, "I must save my mommy…"**_


	8. The Sand Boy: Part 7

"Well, how do we explain this…" The three of us sat at a stone table. Temari was trying to find the right words to describe the ingredients they had. Kankuro was just listening to our conversation while slurping up some instant ramen noodles. I would've had some too, but for some reason I had lost my appetite. Wonder why.

"Just tell me the truth. I mean, I know there are meals where you can eat stuff like that, but you had bowls of blood in your fridge." I must have been ghastly pale because Kankuro was looking at me like I was sick.

He coughed. "Don't forget the cabbage."

"I don't care about the damn moldy cabbage! Why do you have bowls of blood in the fridge?!" My fists smashed against the table, leaving a small dent.

"Gaara can explain it to you later. If he wants to, though." Temari nervously glanced around to see if her younger brother was there.

I huffed in agitation. "Great, now I have to wait for asshole to get here so he can explain your poor shoppin' skills."

Both laughed at me, but looked stiff and on edge. I knew they were scared of his power, but would Gaara really kill his own siblings? Maybe.

There was a rising tension in the air as we remained silent. I would have started another conversation, but it felt like anything I could have said would just start an argument. Temari seemed worried as she picked at her noodles while Kankuro was chugging the broth of his then almost empty bowl. I needed to get out of there so I could think.

"Could one of you tell me where I am stayin'? I need some time to myself."

The two siblings looked at each other. Paint boy looked livid and distraught while Temari had a victorious smirk on her face.

Finally, she told me, "Just go up the stairs to the hallway. Go left and head straight to the door at the end." She stopped and sighed. "It's the only door in the left hallway. It should be easy to find."

"Thanks and, uh…" I felt like apologizing for my outbursts earlier, but it got caught in my throat. Instead, I just said, "I had fun today. Kind of."

She nodded, understanding what I meant. I was glad she got the idea.

When I walked out of the dining room towards the front hall, which was where the staircase was, Kakuro shout, "Be careful up there!"

I snorted at him. "You act like you don't know what's in there!"

"Exactly…" I don't think I was supposed to hear his mumbling because I saw Temari whacking him, but I didn't really care.

The steps creaked with each step and a thick layer of dirt covered the stairs. It was rather disgusting that their house was kept in such a condition.

" _Hmm, maybe I'll tidy it up a bit while the rest are sleepin'..."_

I found myself walking towards a lonesome door at the end of a dimly lit hall. It would have intimidated me if I were younger, but there wasn't much that could scare me.

Gaara scared me. A lot, actually. He wasn't one to mess with.

My hand touched the cold knob and tilted it to the right. There was a light rust on it, but with a little effort I was able shove it open. It probably would have scratched my hands if they weren't so calloused from all my years of intensive training.

"What the actual…?" I stood in the middle of a room filled with various cacti and roughly three pieces of furniture. There was a neatly-made bed, a large desk by the small window, and a shelf holding scrolls.

Then there were cacti. Like for real, they were everywhere. It made it hard to believe that Gaara, the person I had concluded owned this room, actually lived in here. I had been expecting corpses or bloody sand, but not these plants. Some were small with flowers while others towered over me with holes in them.

I decided to stick my hand in one and I found a very angry owl. It flew around the room, occasionally swooping down to attack me, but I eventually grabbed it by its wings and tossed it out the window.

"Damn that bird… This is… Interestin'..." There wasn't much I could do in there, so I decided to meditate. I sat on his bed, which had a thick blue comforter and a big grey pillow, and crossed my legs. I closed my eyes and entered my mind to contemplate things.

" _Okay, I need to figure things out. So today I woke up in a hospital covered in small holes with no memory of what happened. Gaara was sittin' there, being a creepy asshole and watchin' me. He wouldn't tell me what happened. The others said they had no idea what happened to me. I snuck out the hospital a while after Gaara left. I tried to escape from the village but the guards wouldn't let me. I needed the Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara to be with me when I leave. They're goin' to help me go home, even though I can handle myself. I slapped Gaara and he seemed very mad but got over it. Now I'm stayin' at their house for the night, but I think they're crazy. I mean, they have bowls of blood in the fridge. So, what happened to me that led me to the Sand Village?"_

My mind was blank. Nothing came up.

" _Kasai, think! This is really weird!"_ I kept yelling at myself, hoping it would work and help me figure the whole thing out, but it left me angry and more confused.

' _ **Human, you should not worry so much.'**_ Oten roared into my thoughts, making me jump slightly at the surprise visit.

" _This 'human' has a name! And give me a good reason why I shouldn't being panickin' right now! Everything I have ever learned says this is suspicious behavior!"_

' _ **I do not need to explain myself to you! I am a god and you wish me to care about your name? Baka…'**_

" _You should care a little bit about me! My body holds you prisoner!"_

His growl reminded me of thunder that shook the ground during a storm. ' _ **No need to remind me. I know you hold me, but one day I will kill you and I will be released from this place. I will wait for you to lose your guard and then you will be dead.'**_

" _You still haven't given me a reason yet."_

' _ **And I am not going to. You should have faith in me, foolish human.'**_

I mentally rolled my eyes. " _Whatever."_

' _ **Do not treat me with such disrespect!'**_

" _Yes,_ mother." I spat back at him, hoping to annoy him even more.

' _ **This is why I do not like you.'**_ Oten sighed and, once more, he left me.

I was alone again. No one was there to talk to and my head hurt too much to meditate anymore. My crimson eyes opened to a dark room. When I had walked in here the sun was just hitting the horizon, but now the moon was setting. I spent the whole night bouting with Oten. Not exactly my favorite pastime, but whatever.

I decided to that I would go clean like I said I would earlier. My feet started to guide me to the door in the lightless room. It was silent except for the occasional whimper when I would walk into a cactus. Those things suck, you know.

My hand was stumbling against the flat door, trying to find the knob again. The moment my fingertips touched the warm metal I was flung across the room and pinned to the wall right beside the desk . I was startled and completely flabbergasted until I felt the rough feeling of sand against my shins and forearms. There was a thicker band around my waist, squeezing tightly.

I didn't see anything until a pair of minty blue eyes opened up right in front of me. There was a low growl before I realized I was screwed.

"Well, shit."


	9. The Sand Boy: Part 8

We were frozen in that position for quite awhile. He stood there, silently scolding me with his threatening glare while I remained immobile on the wall. I knew Gaara wasn't going to be the first to talk, but I was finding it hard to move my mouth properly. It was as if it was a nervous as I was.

Finally, after taking a deep breath to calm down, I stammered, "I-I guess you want an explanation, right?" He always made me stutter, that asshole...

He made some sort of noise as a response. What else would I have expected from the redhead?

"The others were scared I would sneak out if I slept on the couch, so they said I would sleep in here." I paused before smirking widely. "However, I doubt you would have let me leave here, am I right?"

"You're right." His breath was hot and made me flinch at how close he was. I tried to move my arms so I could push him away, but his sand held me still

"Could you let me go?"

Gaara shook his head slowly. "Tell me why you aren't sleeping."

"Fine, bossy. I don't sleep. I can't or else Oten could kill me."

He was satisfied with my response. Noiselessly, he jumped back before making his sand drop me. I wasn't expecting it and crashed into the floor, groaning at the unpleasant surprise.

"So what time are you guys takin' me home?"

"Noon." I barely heard his hushed voice.

I sighed. There was nothing to do in this dump. "Well, I'm goin' to go find a place to train." I stood up and brushed invisible specks of dirt off. "So, yeah."

"I'm coming with you."

I narrowed my crimson eyes at him. "No you're not."

Gaara stepped forward so he was only a few inches from me. His face was blank, but I bet he was enjoying my frustration.

"Why are you comin' with me, if you don't mind me askin'?"

"I don't have to answer to you."

I stomped my dark brown boot on the floor. "No, but it wouldn't be bad for you to not be an asshole!"

The sound of his menacing growl made me stop my rant. I knew I wouldn't beat him. His decision was final.

"Show me the best place to train, then."

~Time Skip~

My thumb rested beneath my chin as I pondered on what I should practice. "Hmm… Taijutsu? Genjutsu? Ninjutsu?" I plopped down in a pile of dust in defeat, even though I knew I would have to do Taijutsu. It was the only fighting style I fought with. "Why is it so hard to pick!"

Gaara paid no attention to my mindless problems. He sat on a large sandstone several yards away from the training area, idling twirling a dead leaf between his fingers and forming swirls of sand around him. Whether or not he realized he was doing it was a separate issue.

I turned to take in my surroundings. Three wide marble pillars stood in the middle of a dried lake. The remains of a building were scattered everywhere, merely crumbling pieces of chipped stone jutting out of the ground. By the writing and pictures etched into some of them I assumed it was some sort of temple. It spoke of gods and demons all while showing a gruesome battle. I was interested in it.

' _ **This boy has good tastes. I like him.'**_

A certain Shinigami interrupted my admiring thoughts. " _Oh, look, it's you again. I'm just rollin' in joy to hear from you again."_ Sarcasm dripped from my words.

Oten ignored it. ' _ **Do you know what this place is, human?**_

" _My name is Kasai and no. What's so great about this ruin?"_

' _ **It is a temple for the Skoúro Theó̱n.'**_

I needed an automatic translator for Oten. " _Please speak 'foolish mortal tongue' for me. Your language confuses me."_

' _ **A temple for the Dark Gods. Tell him he has pleased me and I have taken notice of his actions.'**_

I cleared my throat as I took a few step towards where Gaara was. "He says he's pleased with your choice of location and has noticed you."

He gripped his head firmly for a few moments before looking at me. "Mine says your's is an idiot to think I could think of this place."

I smirked and imagined the look of embarrassment my god had at the moment. ' _ **I will kill him one day…"**_

I saw the opportunity to cause some much needed mischief. "Well, mine says he will kill-!"

My whole body shook before slamming against the rock-like soil. I was convulsing in pain as the god raged within me. His voice erupted from my mouth and I knew Oten meant business.

" **You stupid mortal, do you not understand that I ultimately control you? I may be a prisoner in this vile flesh, but when angered I take control! When will you learn?"** I felt my body stumble into a standing position, but I did not do it.

Gaara was screaming and holding his head in his hands. I wanted to ask what was wrong and try to help him, but my body was no longer mine. I just watched from my eyes as the scene around me played itself.

Soon Gaara was speaking, but like me it was not him. His minty blue orbs met my crimson ones and I searched for any sign of him in there. I saw a faint glimmer, but it was lost in a fog of bloodlust and hatred.

" **You have not even whipped your capsule into shape yet, Oten? I see you have grown soft after all these years. Say, can I kill it?"**

My god chuckled; it was an intimidating and startling voice. " **Me? Soft? I fear I was the one that first defeated you in battle. Yet I spared you. Be grateful to me, Shukaku."**

" **You couldn't have killed me. You're a Shinigami! Besides, if you did kill me, your boss would-"**

" **Trap me in a mortal's body. Yes, I know the consequences, as I am doing my time right now, but in the heat of battle I would have made sure to turn you to dust."** Oten's signature snarl could be heard, but it was drowned out by Shukaku's roar.

" **At least I dwell in a powerful and obedient human. Your's has an attitude that needs to be beaten out of her. Spitfire that one is."**

" **While her fiery personality can be troublesome at times, it is useful in combat. She will not back down unless absolutely necessary, and even then she occasionally will continue her battle."**

" **True, Oten, that may be good for a average things, mine does not need such wasted determination. He is super strong, like me!"**

My body moved smoothly towards Gaara's until we were face to face. His expression, although not in his control, looked vaguely worried and angry. My reflection was lost in his blank eyes.

" **Was that a challenge, Shukaku?"**

" **HELL YEAH!"**

Immediately I was released from the Shinigami's control. Once he was gone, my body went limp as I tumbled down in a fit of coughs. My head was throbbing, I was light-headed, but I was pissed off.

I got up on my knees and looked up to meet Gaara's gaze. His angry eyes never wavered from me as he stood with crossed arms. It was like he hadn't been affected like I was. Then I realized I was in no condition to fight. I felt like I was about to pass out and I had barely moved.

But Oten was correct about what he had previously said: I don't back down in fights.

"Alright asshole, I've been waiting for this."

"Same."

And then I charged at him, but we were both equally eager for the rush of adrenaline and hoping for a taste of sweet victory.


	10. The Sand Boy: Part 9

_**The girl, small for her age due to malnourishment, hid behind the rattling bush. She watched as the man continued to hurt her mom and she was waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Once in awhile he would tilt his head towards the sky and howl like a wild hound. That was what she was waiting for because it would be easy for her to slice the throat of the bald attacker.**_

 _ **She saw the moment coming as he began to look up. Her temperature sky-rocketed as her nerves began to hit her, but she pushed all pitiful emotions aside. She had to if she wanted to kill successfully.**_

 _ **That was one of the first things Orochi had taught her.**_

 _ **His cry rang through the air as her blade slit his throat in half. Blood bubbled out of the wound as he tried to speak, but all that could be heard was the gurgling and splattering of the scarlet goo as splashed onto the girl's mother. Both of the female's eyes were wide; one pair was out of fear that her daughter had killed a man right above her and the other's were hungry for blood, thirsty for the sounds of slaughter.**_

 _ **The girl looked down at the blonde woman and smirked, realizing she had power. She had the ability to end a life that had made her existence miserable. That woman was the reason there were scars on the young girl's wrists, her dad caused the burns on her thighs, and the sister was the source of the feast of poison berries. Now, she could make them feel the way she had felt for many years. The girl could kill them.**_

 _ **But she could not bring herself to let the blade dance upon her mother's body. No, she was not prepared for that, even though she had trained with the skilled Orochi for such an event.**_

 _ **The blonde woman saw that by the girl's expression. Even though she had her face scrunched up in anger and disgust, a sweet and loving child was still behind those aqua blue eyes. She laughed wickedly at this and stood up, merely glancing at the false lover's corpse.**_

" _ **You treated my guest with such ugly manners, you pest. Why would you do such a thing?" Long, rough fingers gripped the girl's chin and pushed so that the were staring deeply into each other's eyes. "Hmm?"**_

 _ **The kunai plummeted towards the ground as the girl heard the evil intent in her mother's words. "I wanted to save you, mommy… He was hurting you and I love my family…"**_

" _ **Stupid child, do you see that we despise your very existence? Why would you love us after that?"**_

" _ **Because anyone can love! Anyone can learn to love! You can love me, so I want to show you I am worth it!" The girl screeched at the top of her lungs, hoping her words would reach her mom's ears.**_

 _ **The woman pushed the small figure to the forest floor, keeping her down by resting her bony knee against the girl's back. "No one can learn to love you. I will make sure of that, my idiot daughter."**_

 _ **The kunai, still soaked in the blood of the man, resting against the now exposed back of the girl. Slowly, as if savouring every second of the ordeal, the woman began cutting deeply into her skin and carving a symbol that would haunt her for the rest of her life.**_

 _ **"The word 'hate' doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about you. However, it is now sketched into your skin as a reminder that not all people are meant to be loved." She leaned closer to the girl's ear. "Do you still love your dear family now?"**_

 _ **There was not a single word muttered from the girl in response. Instead, heat began to course through her thin body. It began to radiate off her and, in no time at all, her skin was so hot it burnt the mother's hand, making her fall back in pain.**_

 _ **The girl began to shake as an inferno erupted around her, sending pieces of flaming forest debris flying. Her laughed swirled with the flames and echoed in the smoky air, making her voice seem deeper than normal. It felt like boiling chakra was seeping out of her body, coating her in an armor of energy. Once again, she felt the power to kill course through her veins. She wanted, no, needed blood on her hands and to taste the metallic liquid on her dry tongue.**_

 _ **This was the first time she ever unleashed her monster for a hunt, but it would not be the last.**_


	11. The Sand Boy: Part 10

" _Oh, Kami,"_ I thought. " _He must know I'm here. Damn it, Oten, why did you make this challenge? You know he's better than me!"_ Just as the thought ran through my mind, a strand of sand began weaving its way over towards my hiding place behind the middle column in the dried pond.

' _ **Use your jutsus, mortal. You will win if you do.'**_

" _No! I can't! You know what happens when… When I do that."_ My voice in my head yelled at the Shinigami, reminding him of previous experiences when my powers got out of hand.

The black eyes… The tiger's stripes… The very thought made me tremble in fear of my true powers.

' _ **Then we shall lose and you will be shamed.'**_ Oten was correct, but I was not about to let him bug me during battle.

I decided I needed to get a better hiding spot, so I made a clone (not a very good one, but it should have gotten the job done) and made it run towards Gaara as a distraction. My body was already in motion when I felt the grainy tendril beginning to slither around my calf, making me release a loud gasp as I tried to cut it with a knife. I knew it wouldn't have helped me, but at the time I just had run out of ideas.

"Damn it, Gaara, let me go!" Of course he did the opposite and tightened the pressure on me. What else would've he done? He saw that I only fought with my Taijutsu, so he had been toying with me for hours. There was no way to defend myself.

Another vine-like strip of sand began to coil around my torso and flopped me onto the ground, dragging me out into the open. I tossed and turned, hoping to miraculously escape his sand, but Gaara made sure there was no chance of that. Several streams of sand followed closely behind me. The muscles in my body finally quit their struggle after a while and I laid motionless as I was brought before him.

I felt the earth below me stop moving and saw the boy's shadow leaning over me. My eyes met his once again and I saw a heartless stare, causing me to lower my head. The bracelet on my forearm grew tight again and I bit my tongue to halt a scream that was building in my throat.

I knew he had won. My kicks, punches, slaps were nothing compared to his sand. If I had used my Genjutsu or Ninjutsu on him he would've lost. That would have also ended in the destruction of the Sand Village, whether I wanted to do that or not.

My defeat was apparent, so I tried to make a bargain for my life. "H-How about we make a deal? You know, so you don't kill me?" Damn, I stuttered again!

' _ **Only I can kill you, human. Why must I keep reminding you this?'**_ I ignored Oten as I watched Gaara with keen eyes, hoping to see some sort of emotional response. I was sure Shukaku could kill me if he really wanted to, with or without Oten's assistance.

"You beg for life this early into battle? Pathetic." His fist tensed up even more, making the sand around my body compact. I let out a sudden gasp as the air was squeezed out of my tired lungs.

"Yeah, I know, b-but come on… You can get whatever you want from me… Just let me live…"

"You will obey my every command and cooperate with me. If you don't, I will not hesitate and kill you." His words were harsh and came out easily for him. For most people they would have meekly nodded there head or mumbled in agreement, but I was just too proud for that.

"Oh _please_ , bite me! I-" Teeth plunged into my shoulder and stopped me before I could let my 'colorful' sentence tumble out of my mouth. I turned my head to see Gaara gnawing at my dirtied skin, drawing large blobs of my blood. His tongue lapped it up, scratching me in the process.

After a few seconds of this, he pulled back with my blood still dripping down his face. His eyes were wide with fascination and delight, but his stance looked like he was ready to hit me again.

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT LITERALLY, ASSHOLE."

"Do not tempt me." He folded his arms again and stared down at me, his expression now returning to his casually bored face.

A low growl of humiliation rolled out of my throat. At that moment, I was really considering using my jutsus, but the voice in the back of my mind calmed me down.

"I will take your offer, Gaara…" Tears began to slide down my dirty cheeks. I had lost a battle because of my inability to use my true strength; the deal I had made for my life was like adding salt to my wound.

"It wasn't an offer; it was a demand." Gaara was already being a jerk, but what did I expect?

I couldn't meet his minty blue eyes anymore. "Okay, I get it, but put me down. I can barely breath in here." Just as I said that he made his sand drop me onto the ground. A cloud of dust rose in the air, making me cough a bit.

He began to walk away from the training area, kicking me while he was at it. "Come on, we leave soon."

"Alright, alright…" Tears still crawled down my face and I watched them splatter on my now dusty red shirt. It was then I realized how many rips and holes were in it. I felt my back and nearly fainted when I realized most of my back was visible. That means he saw my mark.

Damn that mark.

Almost as though he could read my mind, he demanded me, "Tell me about the mark on your back" His monotone voice was much calmer than before, but there was a bit of hidden fury in it still.

"Oh, that? That's nothin', don't worry about it." My lie was so obvious that even Naruto could have seen through it.

"I told you to tell me about it, not to make a terrible excuse about it." He ordered over his shoulder at me, making me stop for a moment.

"Why do you care?"

Gaara's feet planted into the ground as he spun around to look at me. "I ask the questions, you answer. Now tell me."

I gulped as I looked away. The past wasn't a topic I talked about in detail very often. I mean, I regretted ever telling him about it while I was in the hospital, even though half the story was a lie

"Fine. When I was a kid, I made my mom pissed at me. As a punishment, she carved the kanji mark for 'hate' onto my back." My eyes darted the the symbol on his forehead and I almost asked him about that. It was an extremely condensed version of the story, but I was sparing him from asking pointless questions.

He nodded before inquiring, "What did you do?"

"I killed a lover of her's because I thought he was attacking her. When she asked me why I did it I said that it was because I loved her. She told me that nobody loved me and to prove it, she scratched it into my skin." I finally built up the courage to look Gaara in the eyes. "Now I see why she did it. I am a child born of hate and I should have never loved those fools. If I hadn't, I could've…" I stopped there, realizing that if I got too worked up I may appear weak. So instead of having a small breakdown, I smiled.

Gaara watched me for awhile, analyzing everything I had just told him. Much to my surprise, he didn't press on the subject further. He simply nodded and began walking again while I trailed far behind.

The band around my wrist had been tight for awhile now, but as he became less tense I saw it loosen. I wished I knew how to do that.

Once again, I paid no mind to the direction we were walking. I only noticed when we were standing in front of their two-story red house. My sore feet guided me to the steps before I realized Gaara wasn't following. Curious, I swung around to see him walking away. I didn't call out to him or anything, I decided to let him do his thing.

I also came to the conclusion to never, ever mess with him unless I had a very sincere death wish. My ass was bruised from it for weeks after, which sucked.

But things would eventually get better, I just had to wait.

~:*^*:~

Both of them stared at me with wide eyes when I walked in. Temari completely dropped her fan while she was cleaning it when she took in my appearance. Kankuro took a small bite of his apple, somehow making a mess while at it, before narrowing his eyes at me. He was the first to speak, even though he had food in his mouth.

"What happened to you?"

I shrugged. "Got into a fight. Nothin' big."

Temari pointed to my torn outfit and skin with dry blood on it. "Looks like it was more than 'Nothing'. Tell us."

They both began to get suspicious once I stayed silent. Seeing that they were not going to give it up, I continued, "Fine. I got into a fight with Gaara and I obviously lost, okay?"

"You… You fought Gaara?" Kankuro could barely get that out of his mouth.

"Yep. I did."

"And he didn't kill you?" Temari was almost speechless.

A dull pain began to plague my head, so I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. "Do I look dead to you? I made a deal with him and he spared me."

Kankuro glared at me. "You are such an idiot. Why would you fight him?"

It was at this moment I remembered that they didn't know about Oten. I wasn't scared of telling Gaara because my Shinigami told me to, but what would these people think? Of course, they would be fine with it. They had to live with Gaara and he had Shukaku.

"The Shinigami in me challenged Shukaku and made me fight with Gaara to see who was stronger. You can guess who won and who lost."

"So you are the Kasaisuna from the Akuma clan? I thought I heard that name before." Kankuro was still staring at me while Temari kept looking between the two of us, still acting confused.

"How do you know of my lineage? Almost no one in the Leaf Village knows of me." My crimson eyes looked away when I mentioned my home. I missed my friends, especially Kiba.

"Your name is well-known to many nations. Most think you are dead like the rest of your family, but it seems you lived." He paused before leaning back in his chair. "And you still have the Shinigami in you, too. I'm guessing the Hokage told you not to say your _real_ full name or to tell about the death god to the villagers, right?"

My head bobbed up and down as I slowly nodded. He knew more than I was okay with.

"It seems like he is trying to protect you. Many people would love to see you dead, seeing as your father wasn't a very good man and your mother was a street wench. It also doesn't help that you have two kekkei genkais, either."

"Don't mention that, you paint bastard." My voice grew lower than usual as I stared him down. Kankuro didn't seem to notice.

"Our clan had bad blood with yours. That's how I know, by the way. I highly recommend you don't say anything to the residents of our village. If they knew of you, they would surely kill you."

Temari was just as interested in the story as I was. "Wait, how do you know all of this? I knew nothing about this 'Akuma' clan."

"I remember some people talking about in our living room when we were younger, before all of _that_ happened. I don't remember who it was, but they said they would make sure her clan died if it was the last thing they did." Kankuro was eyeing me carefully now, trying to see what my emotions were doing.

I stood there with a blank expression on my face, trying to conceal the boiling rage burning within me. No one was supposed to know about me and yet here was Kankuro telling me that many people in the different nations want to kill me, which was a fact I had known for many years. It was still a surprise to say the least.

I stood there as if I were impassive with my scratched-up arms crossed. If Gaara were as smoking hot I was, I would dare to say that we resembled each other at the time.

Temari was now leaning on the table, impatiently tapping her nails on the hard surface. She was not pleased that her brother had told her none of that information.

"Do you mind stepping out of the room for a second, Kasai? I need to have a sibling chat with my brother." She was facing the wall, as if she were trying to hide her frustration.

"I'll just go clean myself up a bit." I excused myself and saw Kankuro sending me a distressed look. He wanted me to save him from his sister, but I was more than glad to let him get shouted at by Temari. Served him right.

The creaks of the stairs couldn't even block Temari's rant. It was hilarious to hear her so mad at him.

"WHY DID YOU SAY ALL OF THAT TO HER?! DO YOU NOT SEE THAT SHE IS PROBABLY FEELING TERRIBLE ABOUT IT ALL?! DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!" There was a small pause before I heard her screaming again. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU LIKE KASAI?! I KNOW YOU LIKE ALL WOMEN, BUT WE BARELY KNOW HER! IF YOU LIKE HER, BE MORE CONSIDERATE!"

I don't think he wanted me to know that. Sure, Kankuro was funny, but he was too pervy for me. Besides, I had been dating Kiba before all of this.

Kiba… I had forgotten about Kiba. I wondered how my snuggly puppy was doing? Maybe he would know what happened to me.

I wandered around the hallway searching for a restroom to wash up in. After opening random doors, including all the bedrooms (Between you and I, Kankuro lived in a pigpen. I wondered how he could find his way to the door through the stacks of empty pizza boxes and dirty clothes.), I found it.

The green room was small. It had a shower, a sink covered in purple face paint, and a loo. Swifty, I took a warm shower. Well, it was warm for about ten seconds before turning deathly cold. I'm pretty sure I was nearly blue when I flopped out of it.

I combed my hair with my numb fingers, humming a random tune and occasionally twirling around. The small band on my arm was still dry after I made sure not to let the water hit it. Then I reached for a towel when I realized I had been an idiot.

There was no towel hanging there.

At first I was fine, thinking I could just wear my old clothes and be soaking wet. That was until I saw them sitting in a huge puddle of soapy water. I knew I had no other clothes and no way wrapping myself up. The thought of running around their house nude made me chuckle to myself, as I imagined Temari trying to whack me with her fan while Kankuro bled to death from a nosebleed.

The panic was starting to set in. If I could use my jutsus then the clothes would have been dry in no time, and possibly burnt, but that wasn't an option. One solution popped into my mind: wait and let them dry. So I hung them from the top of the shower and sat on the ground, shivering even though the house was unnaturally hot.

My eyes were closed when I heard rustling to my side. Being the oblivious person I was, I didn't notice the stack of neatly folded clothes resting on a simple white towel appear to my side and never saw the thin trail of sand slither back through the crack under the door. It was only when the band on my arm pinched at me that I could see it.

" _Hmm…"_ I thought as I threw the towel around me. " _I wonder who did this?"_

~:*^*:~

 _ **The screams of her mother woke the girl from her trance. A once green forest with the bright colours of fall had been painted over with dark blood. Limbs of trees held bits of tangled blonde hair and freshly ripped chunks of skin. It was startling for a girl not even of the age of four. Though her eyes could see, her mind could not process the rest of the scene.**_

 _ **A woman, barely out of her twenties, laid on the ground and looked up in complete horror as another girl, maybe twelve, hung from a vine above her. Her blonde locks were pulled out in some places, leaving large bald spots.**_

 _ **The girl's neck was swollen and bruised, revealing a large gash on her shoulder too. She had been dead for several hours. The woman, who looked very similar to the hanging child, tried to reach out to the kid. Yet, even after she put all her strength into it, her hand would numbly flail to the ground with a soft 'thud'.**_

 _ **Tears the shade of the red setting sun slid down the girl's face as she saw what she had done to her sister and mother. The red liquid was also spilling out of the hole where her mom's arm had been while both of her legs were twisted beyond recognition.**_

" _ **Mother… What have I done?" The girl's voice was lower than it had been before. Her body felt stronger and taller, too. Something had changed in the little child.**_

 _ **Raspy gasps for air were the only response she received before her mother went limp. Her eyes, a vivid purple and once full of life, seem to cloud over with the fog of death.**_

 _ **And then there was silence, for girl did not release another tear or muffle a loud sob. Instead, she stood over the two family member's corpses with narrowed eyes of disgust. There was no guilt in the child's heart. In her mind, she simply thought she had freed a prisoner. She thought there was no murder that day, only a justified kill.**_

 _ **Now, she wanted her teacher to see the fine handiwork his student had done. The girl with raven hair screeched for her sensei, but he remained hidden in the shadows, for he wanted to see how she handled her father.**_

 _ **Orochi smirked as he heard the plump hunter roar his daughter's name and when she cowered by her mother's cold form, he laughed.**_

 _ **He knew the real test was fast approaching and he wasn't about to miss it.**_

*This is a combination of three chapters*

 **Bye, and thanks for reading~!**


	12. The Sand Boy: Part 11

I gave myself one last look in the mirror, checking to make sure the new outfit that was the same as the one before looked right, before stampeding out of the bathroom and practically leaping down the stairs. I landed in the living room to a very surprised looking Temari, who also was looking through various outfits on the couch.

"I was going to give you some of my old clothes, but I didn't know you had another pair of your clothes." She began to refold her small wardrobe while watching me.

"Neither did I. Found it in the bathroom along with a towel."

Kankuro popped through the kitchen opening. "We don't have towels."

I looked at him like he was a dancing donkey. "Then how did I get a towel and a new pair of clothes? They both were sitting on the ground. I thought one of you gave them to me."

"No, we didn't. Kankuro and I were having an argument until I grew bored of yelling at him and went to my room." Temari sat down while staring at Kankuro. "What did you do?"

"I went out to see if I could find Gaara. We are supposed to leave at noon and he hasn't come back yet." He pointed towards a small black clock on the wall which read _11:47_.

We all glanced around at each other, equally as confused as the next person. A new mystery was arising and I loved pretending to be a detective. It was a favorite pastime of mine back at home.

"Well, whoever it was was a very kind person." I shrugged while they agreed with me. Just what I wanted; to think they were free of suspicions.

Kakuro disappeared back into the kitchen where I could hear him slurping ramen. I swear, he and Naruto are the only people that can eat that much of those noodles.

I was distracted when Temari asked me, "So you said you made a deal with Gaara. What are the specifics?"

She nodded at an armchair, so I sat in it before explaining, "I told him I would do anything if he would let me live. He said that I would have to follow everyone of his commands and cooperate with him; he will kill me otherwise. Then he…" I stopped myself. My eyes darted towards Temari, who looked interested in what I was saying. I could barely cough out, "Does he normally bite people?"

"Huh?" She had the look of bewilderment plastered on her face as she looked over to my shoulder, which I had promptly wrapped when I came back from the fight. "Gaara _bit_ you?"

"Yeah. He bit me like a rabid dog and started lickin' my blood." The thought of it all sent a shiver up my spine.

Temari opened her mouth like she was about to say something, but loud knocks at the door interrupted her. Whoever it was who was hitting the door was impatient, for I swore there had been at least fifty beats on the door before Kankuro could open it.

A man almost six feet tall burst through, pushing Kankuro down along the way. He had a tan cloth covering the left side of his face while the other half had red paint smeared on it. His face was already occupied by a frown and only got worse when he saw me.

"You're the girl they have to protect on our way to Konoha? I was hoping for something more…" He stopped to examine me further before saying, "...Regal. I was told you were very important but you seem like a short, little brat."

"Hey, I'm 4'9! That is the tallest I've ever been!"

The moment I said that I realized how idiotic it sounded. The man looked absolutely defeated by my remark.

"Great, she's a _genius_ too…" Before I could muster a snarky comment for him, he turned to Temari and asked, "Where's Gaara?"

Kankuro, who had been sitting on the ground holding a bump on his head, finally stood up. "He disappeared after an incident this morning, Baki."

Baki then turned to the paint fool. "Don't be so vague. What happened?"

I was the one who spoke this time. "Gaara and I got into a fight. After droppin' me off here, he walked away. I don't know where he went."

"Okay, I-uh-eh- I'll ask questions later." He placed his head in his calloused hand. "Which direction did he go?"

"Just straight down the street in front of the house." I pointed in the direction I remembered Gaara going.

Baki began to walk purposefully out the door, hoping to find Gaara on the streets of Sunagakure. Before shutting it, however, he leaned back in and yelled, "Don't leave until I come back."

Then he was gone. Temari and Kankuro exchanged a worried glance while I just stood there, astonished by how much I already disliked Baki.

"Do you think he'll find Gaara soon so I can go back home?"

The siblings shook their heads. A sigh escaped my lips as I realized life always found ways to make things more frustrating.

Temari began walking up the stairs towards the bedrooms. "You guys should probably go and rest. I assume we'll be leaving as soon as they return, so we need to be prepared."

Kankuro grunted in agreement while I mumbled an 'okay'. I heard her door squeak shut, leaving me alone with him. My attempt of escaping up to the room I was staying in was brought down when the paint fool stepped in front of me, walking towards me at the same time. The closeness was starting to make me anxious and made me take large steps backwards, eventually stopping when I felt my back hit a corner of the living room. His hands slammed above my head, making it nearly impossible to escape from him without a fight.

"What the hell are you doin', paint bastard?" Unlike the times I spoke to Gaara, my words didn't stutter. Instead, I was confident. I believed I could kill Kankuro, so I was not nervous.

"Just want to know what you think." His voice was lower than usual and caught me off guard.

"Think about what?"

"Us."

Then I realized what he was doing. My hands went to his chest as I tried to push him away, but Kankuro just grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head. Despite my previous deductions of him, I had been wrong by saying he was not strong. He seemed almost too strong, in fact.

"Kankuro, get off. Now."

"No need to be so rude, Kasai." He leaned towards my face, causing me to close one of my eyes. "I was only asking a question."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not a fool, Kankuro. I know what you're doin'." I scoffed.

"I like how you say my name. Do it again." Okay, that was the line and he crossed it.

I knew exactly what I was about to do. I made my contorted face of fury turn almost innocent, widening my bright eyes and forcing a blush to colour my cheeks. "You wanna know exactly what I'm thinkin'?" I said that as I looked at his eyes through lowered lashes.

He purred almost like cat. "Tell me."

"I think that first, you are a creep." I kicked him right between the legs, earning a groan of pain as he fell over.

"Second, I think that our formin' friendship officially just ended." My now free hands grabbed him by his collar and allowed me to punch him across the face, busting his lip up at the same time.

"Third, I think my boyfriend will kill you when I get home and I tell him what happened today. He doesn't like it when people touch me." My knee rammed into his stomach as I stood him up, flung him against the wall, and knelt by his now shaking frame.

I pouted my lips. "Aww, don't like this version of me? Too bad, puppet boy."

A smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I saw Kankuro wipe the blood from his mouth. Oh, I can't say it wasn't tempting to kill him then and there, but I had to ignore the bloodlust. It wasn't normal and that's what I wanted to be.

He tried to move his gloved hand to use his chakra strings, but they were no longer functioning. I laughed at his pathetic attempt to attack me and almost considered it insolence when he shot me a questioning glare. Kankuro should've felt me hit and disable his arms.

"H-How?"

"Do you think I am a big enough fool to not realize you use chakra threads in battle? I know a puppeteer when I see one." Then I decided to mess with him and leaned closely to his ear. "And besides, I like to be feisty in tight situations. Gets me goin'."

You should've seen his blush that reminded me of a raging flame. He looked horrified and I loved it. Ah, good times…


	13. The Sand Boy: Part 12

p data-p-id="41d002bec2cf7fc3d7f5d55099c61e56"After teaching paint boy a lesson, and making sure he understood it all, I began my way to Gaara's room. Sure, I couldn't actually rest like Temari wanted, but I could at least relax or meditate./p  
p data-p-id="c19aba28c756cff371208ef0040d5cea"I was too interested in my thoughts that I hardly noticed bumping into someone on the top of the stairs. In fact, I uttered a rehearsed apology and began to walk off again without even checking to see who I had walked into. However, I came back to my senses when I could no longer move forward. There was a sand wall blocking my path./p  
p data-p-id="7b0e433976ad6a759914576e3bdbd65a"It was then I realized who it was. Instead of calmly turning around and asking him to remove the barrier, I released an assault of poorly conducted kicks and punches in an attempt to break it down./p  
p data-p-id="0bb330d69604920592be031f63b1cc33""Let me through! Let me through!" I growled with clenched teeth./p  
p data-p-id="42d9a992fb69177b228522930672ec56"There was an upset sigh from behind me and quiet footsteps began to approach me. Suddenly, a series of jumbled up flashbacks swarmed my memory and I felt myself losing control. The trigger: an uprising fear of abuse and abandonment./p  
p data-p-id="a7e09e220e8f594873cb438ea65359ac"The iron cell. The chants and sealing. The command to kill them all... I was made into a monster and that was what I was to be: Orochimaru's little pet./p  
p data-p-id="5a90f64eeec5217bf205b9ed1bc226fa"Whatever control I had managed to keep within me was suddenly lost as the dread consumed me. The memories completely clouded my judgement and out of pure terror, I let let my stripes show. Literally./p  
p data-p-id="f06da572fbfd9ac0ecb4998f4ba8b6f4"Bones began to crack as my body started its transformation. My spine began to curl and curve upwards; the feline's claws engulfed my slender fingers; my shoulder blades moved closer together as my arms grew more animal-like; and I could feel my pupils grow long and thin. It was only a matter of time before the tiger stripes would paint my body. Then I would grow huge, breaking this house completely and rampaging through the Sand Village, slaughtering hundreds of innocent lives./p  
p data-p-id="41b9ee0015217a0366ee9604f32714e8"Part of me wanted this so badly while the other had avoided it for many years./p  
p data-p-id="55a3946537da2c65bd4f9236f4df6c8c"strongem 'Kill him! Kill them! Kill all of them! I want blood! I want death!'/em/strong Oten was cheering on my transformation, for he knew what it would lead to. Being a death god meant he would always welcome a mindless massacre./p  
p data-p-id="eaf258fe45fa56279a5a8622e1ccec77"I was trying to fight it. The urge to kill would have eventually washed away my morals and logic, but something stopped me./p  
p data-p-id="488bf11862f8e8603bfcf06c3196b383"There was voice calling out to me. No wait, there were several voices calling out to me. One was from a female, strong and hardy; another was sounded like a frightened and injured boy; and the last was deep and quiet, much like the song of the sea. All of them were shouting at me, but my eyes could not make out their figures./p  
p data-p-id="35a99508890cf05bf44552d862b5e761"I looked in the direction the ruckus was coming from and saw blur of colour. A fiery red mingled closely with minty blue orbs, so I assumed that was one person. Then I saw sharp blonde spikes and pinkish-purple gown. That was someone else; I believed the girl from earlier. Lastly, there was purple lines, black blobs, and bright red, like blood. That was when it hit me; the metallic liquid overwhelmed my sense of smell as a single drop of it splattered against the ground../p  
p data-p-id="5a61bc7cb2200347eec6149c0729c004"emstrong'Give me blood! I need blood!'/strong/em Oten grew more excited. This was something he had been waiting for for several years. It was the only thing the Shinigami had to look forward to./p  
p data-p-id="a986dc8f97d557aa8018a0bce079b351"The roar of a tiger filled my throat and slid through my snarling mouth. This was no longer something in my control. There was no point in fighting the urge anymore, for I knew I could do nothing now./p  
p data-p-id="bf48803f95d2046bea33da84b9658675"As I was getting ready to pounce, I felt a hand grip the fur that had bursted out of my neck. It picked me up and lifted me off the ground, causing me to thrash around wildly and claw at my holder. Sadly, my mind could not comprehend that my pointy claws couldn't destroy sand, no matter how many swings I took at it./p  
p data-p-id="e2bfe241348dc2ebdf10b7396b400dc0""Stop."/p  
p data-p-id="4ce05d36279e38e1c2d139144c70e00c"That voice... It was so calming. When I heard it I wanted to quit fighting and go back to normal. But they animal had already taken over me, so it had become instinct to kill. I closed my eyes and continued my pointless battle./p  
p data-p-id="d9b22d7c48076addbd7c129569c8c3d2""I said stop."/p  
p data-p-id="5c0929cbdddd280fb5ac52d1e39db960"Something thin wrapped itself around my bulging neck as I heard that voice again. It was familiar and a name kept popping into my brain: emGaara/em./p  
p data-p-id="229ae176a465e7113c02ee6fa876a4ce"emstrong'Blood! Kill the boy! Kill him!'/strong/em/p  
p data-p-id="4ab692ae9f29c44c30846f0d1cc0fc79"Even though Oten insisted on being noisy, I began to come to my senses again. While the chemicals swimming in my veins told me that I had to hunt, my mind was telling me to stop, just like the voice./p  
p data-p-id="ce54236e5d7f3def510143d8b8e5a999"My body quit moving as I reluctantly opened my eyes, finding of minty blue ones staring back at me./p  
p data-p-id="b9f461d424bae9ed992a7b2549267769""Gaara..." Why was that the word I said? Of all things that came to mind, that was it?/p  
p data-p-id="9f60b79a90d3db06217414f0a9700613"He remained where he was, in his fighting stance, while I hung limply from a sand hand. My muscles began to burn from being stretched and overworked, and I let out a silent scream of anguish when my body began to go back to normal. All my bones were shuffling back to their original places, making my bite my tongue so I wouldn't release a stream of curses and profanities./p  
p data-p-id="bf1f0e909abf8b520c6ba46465501014"Soon I found myself holding back tears of misery. Most people would have been sobbing their eyes out at that point, but I refused to let them see me that weak. No, I had to remain strong in front of them. I was far too busy with that to see I was slowly being brought back to the floor./p  
p data-p-id="4dd137d9b50ed396c06f3c435a634efa"When my feet hit the uneven ground, I immediately collapsed. There was no strength left in me for me to stand with, let alone walk./p  
p data-p-id="942718afd0715e5514caa4760d30be61"More foot steps rushed towards me, but no one dared to touch me. I opened my eyes to see Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara standing several feet away from my small form. They had nothing to worry about; in that condition I could barely move my fingers without grimacing./p  
p data-p-id="59d4dbb849a81ef7c9be12709d2e0147""Please... Kill me... I'm a monster..." If my body and soul were weak enough I knew I could be brought down without Oten's help. That was the perfect moment for them to do it./p  
p data-p-id="5e3368cce1393bc229f2182dc7513f91"The redhead visibly flinched when I said that and his siblings noticed it, too. No one made a sound, the wind brushing alongside the outer walls of the house was the only noise heard. It was dead quiet for hours it seemed before I felt myself get engulfed in a sea of sand. My vision was almost blocked off by the golden grains, but I was able to see Gaara giving me a enraged, yet pitiful, look while commanding his sand towards me./p  
p data-p-id="f378b05a4aa6616566498c3135238ec0"em"Is he really goin' to kill me...?"/em/p 


	14. The Sand Boy: Part 13

**_Sunset was swiftly approaching when the hunter found the black haired girl. She was curled up in a ball beside her mother's corpse and under her sister's hanging body. Her body was drenched in the blood of her victims and tears unknowingly overflowed from her sky blue eyes, but a thin smirk was stretched across her narrow face._**

 ** _The claw marks of a beast were slashed through the surrounding trees and bushes had been stomped flat against the forest floor. It was a messy scene, but the father was unfazed by it all. He had seen, and probably done, far worse._**

 ** _Even though he was confident he could fall a small child, he took short and cautious steps towards her. His voice was thick with both pride and suspicion when he remarked, "Ah, so my maggot of a child has become more like me? I'm surprised, to be honest."_**

 ** _"Father? D-Did I do this?" The innocence that was weaved into her voice was a mere facade, for she knew very well what had happened and who had done it. After all, her teacher had taught her about her abilities._**

 ** _The hunter's step faltered at her words. "You can't be stupid enough not to know whether or not you slaughtered your own family, right?"_**

 ** _A laugh, almost a cackle, slid through her closed-lip smile. "I know, father. I didn't do it." One of her slender fingers pointed at the bodies. "I didn't do it." She repeated herself, as if to make her point clear._**

 ** _"Then who did, worthless child?" Sarcasm oozed from his sentence. To him it was quite clear who had done, but the girl saw it differently._**

 ** _"The striped thing inside me did it. I turned into the striped thing, who then did it." She raised her other hand to point at her father. "And it is going to do it to you, too."_**

 ** _The corners of the middle-age hunter's lips turned downwards at her tone. He had faced many creatures in his life, but none of them had ever made him frown. So what made her different?_**

 ** _"Father?"_**

 ** _"What, you bitch?" He growled as he slipped the silver bow from his back._**

 ** _"You should run. The striped thing is very mad at you."_**

 ** _He considered running in that very moment. His wife, who also had the trait of the striped beast, had once transformed in front of him. It wasn't uncommon to run into a tiger in the woods they occupied, but she changed into a different version of the dangerous feline. When she was in that form, she was well over a hundred feet tall. Her fur, the colour of silver and scarlet, glistened in the moon. The roar of beast shook the ground as though they were in the middle of a massive earthquake._**

 ** _And it appeared that his daughter would inherit both her mother's power and her father's, for the moment the memory of his animalistic wife flashed in his head the girl's eyes turned pitch black like the midnight sky._**

 ** _The two briefly made eye contact and the hunter found himself falling to the ground, slipping into a deep sleep that he would never wake from._**


	15. The Sand Boy: Part 14

"Ugh... Huh...?" Sunlight flooded my eyes, making me yelp with the unexpected light. Why was I outside? What was going on? The last thing I could think of was being in darkness, so how did I get here?

After getting used to my surroundings, I looked up to see a familiar purple face and nearly lost it. He noticed my movements and looked down at me, giving me a sly smirk.

"Look, princess decided to wake up. Nice to see you again."

It was then I noticed Kankuro was carrying me bridal style. His gloved hands gave me an assuring squeeze, as if to calm me down, but the Wrath of Kasai was still going to fall upon him.

"KANKURO I SWEAR, TO EVERY DAMN DIVINE ENTITY OUT THERE, THAT IF YOU DON'T PUT ME FEET ON THE DAMN GROUND THAT I AM GOIN' TO WHOOP YOUR DAMN PUPPET ASS ALL THE WAY TO THE VILLAGE IN THE MIST!" By then I was punching the top of his head, causing a small bump to form.

"Alright, alright! As you wish." He promptly let me go, making me fall to the stone path and landing on my back. If looks could kill, he would have been dead a decade prior to that.

After finding it in my legs to stand up, I stretched and looked around. The three siblings with their traveling packs were watching me, almost examining or analyzing me, while Baki gave me a flustered glare.

"Shut up. We don't need anyone to come attack us because of your shouting." The tan cloth covering his face swayed slightly with his comment.

I was so confused. My hands went to the sides of my hips while my foot began to impatiently tap. "Someone care to explain this, then?" I proceeded to gesture to the group around me.

Temari finally stepped forward, giving me a look I couldn't quite place. Malicious? Suspicious? Fearful? "We're heading to Konoha. We waited two days for you to wake up, but you slept, so we decided to head out anyway."

"Two days? I was out for two days since-" I stopped, suddenly paleing at the thought of my transformation that I had forgotten about. My neck twisted the slightest bit so I could look from the corner of my eye at Gaara, who was in front of the rest of us. His minty blue orbs were looking out into the forest surrounding us, almost like he didn't want to pay attention to us.

"Hey, Kasai, are you alright?" Temari reached for my shoulder but I stepped to the side, dodging the contact. She looked startled, then offended, but quickly regained her stoical composure.

"Yeah, I just... Just need a second..." My heart was beating as fast as a hummingbird's wings. I couldn't believe I actually had a transformation like that in front of them. My breathing became heavy at the thought of them seeing me like that, so I knelt down while trying to relax myself. It wouldn't do to be riled up when going back home.

"Give her some space, Temari." Baki, for once, was trying to help me out. The blonde gave me one quick glance before heading towards her siblings. The man looked down at my shaking body after she was far enough away. "I'm going to go talk to them. When we are ready to leave, I'll come grab you."

With that, he began to walk away towards the others. I sat there, trying not to empty whatever could be in my stomach. They must have hated me, right?

"I thought Gaara was goin' to kill me..." Once again, I found myself gazing at him. His arms were still crossed, but he was listening to their leader, Baki. Temari looked like she wanted to kill the man while Kankuro looked solemn.

I turned my sight towards the woods surrounding me. The place was familiar to me and I knew that I could easily take a shortcut to Konoha if I could escape their protection.

 _"Do you think I could outrun them, Oten?"_

No response. He was ignoring me.

 _"You're mad I didn't kill him, aren't you?"_

Silence once more.

 _"Whatever, I don't need you."_ I looked around to see if the coast was clear. _"I'm goin' to run."_

As if on cue, a dreadful pain snaked up my arm. The bones in my wrist began to pop and creak like the floors of an old house. I had completely forgotten about the sand bracelet that Gaara had put on me.

"Damn... How'd he know...?" I mumbled to myself as I stood up and brushed off the dirt on my red clothes. My free and functioning hand gripped onto the other in an attempt to make it stop, but the feeling would not go away.

"Time to go. Come on." I hadn't noticed Baki come over to me. His eyes wandered over my awkward looking pose and narrowed at my wrist. He figured it out by seeing just a little bit of the band visible through by fingers. "Interesting..."

"Fine. I'm ready." I ignored the fact he had discovered my situation. The grip of the bracelet loosened and a very low growl rose in my throat. I hated his way of controlling me.

Without any hesitation, I marched my way past the weary-eyed bunch. When I reached Gaara, who had taken a few steps away from them, I stopped and looked him dead in the eyes. At first he remained his usual self, unfazed and quiet, but after after several moments of exchanging glares he tensed up. His fists began to ball and if he had eyebrows I assumed they would be furrowed, but instead his Kanji mark tilted downward a little bit. Still, I wasn't backing down.

Finally, he barked, "What?"

I shrugged nonchalantly and began to walk along the road, but not before muttering, "Asshole..."

"Idiot..." I heard him call back.

After that no one talked. We all simply walked towards the Leaf Village, me leading the way, and had no more disagreements.


	16. The Sand Boy: Part 15

"Finally, I'm home!" I shouted, nearly squealed but I got a hold on myself, as I ran through the front gates. The sounds of the Sand Team whispering to each other caught me off guard for a split second, but my nose twitched as a mouth-watering scent of distant barbeque hit me. "Hmm... Maybe the crew and I could go get food later. I can't wait to see my friends."

I mentally went through my small, but wonderful, list of friends and acquaintances. First was Kiba of course. He and I had bonded almost instantly when I first moved here because of how good I am at handling animals, so we were close. Then there's the fact we were dating, but whatever.

Then there was Choji. He was the only person I knew who could eat more food than I could, which was saying a lot! One time, we were having a competition on 'Who-could-eat-more- chips-than-the-other' and I was about to head to the store to grab three dozen family-bags of our favorite flavor when he just suddenly pulled out this small, pink purse. He turned it upside down, and, I swear, I could have filled Hokage's office with all the chip bags he had. I still don't know how they all fit in there.

Hinata and I were pretty close. She would come talk to me when I would be training alone. I would ask her for tips because, whether anyone else realized it or not, she was an amazing hand-to-hand combat fighter! I was stunned at how quickly she can punch and how far she could throw me.

I used to be good friends with Neji, but ever since I started to talk to Hinata more he has been ignoring me. I decided not to question him about it.

There were others that I hung out with, but those were my closest friends. They were the first to accept me into Konoha and I will always remember that. So it was painfully obvious to me that we would all get food together once I found them all.

I coughed awkwardly as I looked back at the Sand Siblings and Baki, each of them watching me with confused eyes. "Well, I guess it was nice meetin' you guys. If you don't mind, I'm goin' to leave you guys to whatever you all are doin'." I gave them a small and weak wave before spinning around and getting ready to dash to my apartment, but a firm grip on my shoulder held me back.

"Not so fast there, brat. We need to take you to the Hokage's office." The man with red face paint looked down at me with stern eyes. I glared back at him, hoping he would back off.

"No. Your duty was to guard me on my journey back here, even though it was completely unnecessary, and you have done your job. Besides, I know where his office is. You don't need to take me there."

Once again, I found that the band on my wrist tightened at my defiance. I sent a pissed off look at Gaara as my free hand gripped the sand bracelet.

Baki scoffed. "Look, it was in the job description. Besides, the chat you're going to have with him includes us, so we have to be there." The tall man bent down and whispered into my ear, "And I don't know how much longer Gaara can resist from killing your sorry, annoying ass. If you want it to stop hurting, just do as I say."

My wide eyes watched him as he began strutting through the Konoha streets. For some odd reason, his words shocked me. It was like he cared or something. People usually despised or judged me because of the mystery of my past.

I snapped out of my thoughts when Temari shoved me forward. The others had already passed us and she looked annoyed by that. However, when I shot a menacing glance at the blonde, she laughed childishly and mumbled a painfully forced apology.

 _"Do I scare her? Jeez, I bet she could beat me in a normal battle..."_ Still, even though I acknowledged my weakness, a grin snuck its way onto my face.

 _"I like scarin' them. Maybe I'll do it even more."_

 **~Time Skip~**

Silence. A room filled with Lord Hokage, four mysterious Sand Ninja, nearly ten guards, and I, the then anxious and flustered girl, and it was still completely silent. The only audible noise was the occasional rustling of papers when the old man would write something down.

And it was like that for a whole hour. Not a single soul had tried to push the matter; even I had not done anything to grab his attention.

That changed when I gave a hoarse and tired cough, hoping he would remember my presence. Hokage froze for a second before sighing defeatedly. He didn't seem pleased with my interruption.

"I know, you must be wondering why you are here." His voice croaked a little bit, possibly from old age. It didn't matter; all I cared about was getting the conversation done with.

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

The old man nodded, understanding my impatience. After another moment, he looked over at the Sand Siblings and Baki. "Please wait outside until we're done."

Unlike Gaara, who decided to be over-dramatic and vanished in a cloud of his dust, the others briskly left the room through the main doors. Three guards accompanied them, just to be safe. Not like I blame them; those people were scary.

"Kasai, I have to tell you something and I am not sure how you will react." He said that right after the door closed and the others were out.

"Is it bad news?" I squinted my eyes at him to see if I could read the expression on his face. It looked grave.

"To you, it will most likely be hard to understand."

I sighed. "Well, we might as well get this over with. Go on, I'm ready for this."

"As you wish. You already know this, but we have a alliance of sorts with the Sand Nation. However, while that may be true, we have very little idea how the country is run from the inside. We barely know about how the city works, how life is there, or the atmosphere in Sunagakure. The only way we get information like that is if we send some of our own people on missions there. Even then the information we get is often inaccurate. You see, the people there are very harsh and guarded. They are vastly different from us. What we see is not who they really are.

"It has been recently decided that we would like to find out more about our fellow nations and their villages. In order to do so, we have to have people blending into their society. The younger a person is, the more likely people will accept them. So we have picked young shinobi to do this mission. Kasai, you were picked for this. You will be permanently moved to Sunagakure and will send reports on it to us every month."

With my mouth agape, I barely choked out, "Hell no... This can't be happenin'. Lord Hokage, I can't do this! Please-"

"You have no choice in this decision." The old man interrupted me. "You are a perfect candidate for this mission. It is a well-known fact that the people of Sunagakure are tough and aren't afraid to stand up for themselves. They do not back down to a fight. You will fit in there, trust me on that."

"But there are so many things that need to be done! I don't have a place to stay, I don't have paperwork done for this, and am I even goin' to be a ninja? This is absurd!" My fists slammed into his desk I grew angrier.

"Silence!" He yelled at me, making me instantly sheepish. I didn't like getting mad at Lord Hokage, but the whole situation was overwhelming.

"Sorry, Lord Hokage..."

He sighed and sat down, his bones cracking along the way. It was hard to listen to. "I understand this is sudden, but it is for the greater good of our village."

"Why do we care about how other villages work?! Its not like they're a danger to us, either! I don't see why we must be sent to these places just to see how they are run!" At that point I didn't care that I had risen my voice to the Hokage, again.

"Our shinobi must know what to expect from a village once they enter their gates. They must know what to say so they do not offend the native citizens. There are other reasons for this, but I do not need to explain them to you! You are a shinobi. It is your job to do your missions properly, not matter how hard they are on you. Do you understand this, Kasai?"

My whole body felt numb as I nodded my sore head. "Yes, Lord Hokage."

He gave me an appreciative smile, one that showed he was thankful I had not fought any further. "Good. Now we have already gotten things set up for you, so there is no reason for you to be upset about that. You will no longer wear the headband of the Leaf Village, but instead will don the Sand Village band. While you will be giving us information through letters, you will now be a ninja of the Sand."

"What? Are... Are you sure? Is that even allowed?" My voice was low by now. I didn't know how to handle the situation.

"I have already contacted the Kazekage about you. He knows everything he needs to know about you, including your..." The Hokage paused, trying to find the right words for Oten and I. "... Thing. Yes, he knows about your Shinigami. He told me that was perfect and made you a genin, even though you haven't passed their graduation test."

That was peculiar, more so than the other things. "Wait, I would've had to graduate again if I didn't have Oten? And I am no longer a Jonin? Why did he think Oten was 'perfect'?"

"It was both that you have the god in you and the fact you are a Jonin at this age that he decided you don't have to be tested again. But you will be a mere genin. However, since you'll be staying with the group outside that door from now on you'll be able to participate in the Chunin Exams, which is half of the reason they are here. The other was to bring you back here safely, and they..."

The old man continued blabbering on and on about matters that did not bother me. I was still hung up on the fact I was staying with the Sand Siblings. I was going to die. Probably literally.

"... and they have your new equipment and all your paperwork that you will need. Any questions, Kasai?" I hoped I hadn't missed any important information, but there was no way I could pay attention to anything he had said after I learned who I would be around.

"No questions, Lord Hokage." Actually, I had a lot of them. But, since I felt like I was about to drop dead, I decided not to initiate further conversation.

"Very well." He huffed. "Let me show you to the door one last time." I didn't want him to go through too much effort because of me and I was about to tell him that I could go myself, but he shook his head before the words could leave my lips. "I insist."

We walked to his office entrance, me trailing behind him defeatedly. If it weren't an order from Lord Hokage himself, I would've put up more of a fight against the whole arrangement. Even though it hurt me to have to leave Konoha, I knew it was equally as painful for him as it was I. He had been like a grandfather for me ever since I arrived. I knew he didn't want me to move, but he knew what was best for the village. I had to do it, even though I personally thought the mission was pointless.

We stopped at the double doors. Our eyes rested on the handles, knowing that may be the last time I ever stepped foot in his office. Tears threatened to stream down my scarred face, but I held them back. He didn't need to see how depressed I was about the ordeal.

"Lord Hokage, I..." I stopped myself. The professional manner I was holding was a terrible mask, so I gave in. I found myself hugging the old man with all my might, as if I were worried something would drag him away from me. "Thank you for lettin' me live in this village! Everyone was so nice to me and treated me as if I were a normal human, not like the experiment I once was! Sure, there were some mean people but they only judged me for Oten, not for who I was on the inside! You accepted me the most and treated me like I was a family member! Thank you for all the days we trained and talked together! And finally, thank you for showin' me the kindness I never had as a little kid! I'm sorry I was rude! I'm just-" I choked on a sob, stopping me from speaking.

 _"Wait, I'm crying. I don't like to cry... I shouldn't be crying... A Shinobi never shows his emotions... I need to stop..."_ The hand that patted my head told me it was alright. Hokage said nothing, for no words could express how he felt for me. I was one of the most loyal Jonin he had, and he saw me as a grandchild figure in his life, so anything he could've said was meaningless. He knew I knew he cared, and that was all that he needed.

"You've been through a lot, Kasai. You're strong and I know you can do it. Be brave."

I smiled and gave a weak sniffle. No more tears spilled out of my crimson eyes and my body was no longer shaking as it had been before. Once I knew I had composed myself, at least enough to go out in public, I slid my noticeably pale hand over the handle. It was ice cold, but that was not the reason a shiver crawled up my spine.

No, it was the realization that I was stuck with Gaara that made me frightened. The others I could handle, but the redhead would kill me. Literally.

Still, it didn't stop me from pushing the doors wide open. At first I thought they made strange crunching noises when moved, until I stomped on Kankuro's crippled body on the floor. Looks like he had been casually flattened. If his outfit wasn't as horrific as it was, I would've said he was a damn good rug.

"Oops, not sorry." I kicked him out of the way and strutted down the hall, acting confident.

They didn't need to know I was scared, right?


	17. The Sand Boy: Part 16

_**The girl found herself laying by her father's corpse, poking it with a sharp stick. There was nothing to do, for night was falling and the girl had no chores given to her by her parents or sister. Normally she would be working very hard doing meaningless tasks, like sweeping away the dirt from the campsite or picking up the scattered rocks near the tents, but now she was free from any forced labour. If she wanted to, the girl could go to the road not far from her site and walk to the nearby farm, but she was waiting.**_

 _ **Orochi promised to come and get her, so she decided to be patient and await his arrival. Besides, she wanted to see her handiwork. The black haired child had defeated three people using both of her kekkei genkais; The Tiger's Heart and The Black-Eyed Sleep.**_

 _ **She began to ponder why her teacher, a man who barely knew her and was basically a complete stranger to her, would teach her how to use her strengths. He was not obligated to; in fact, he had no reason to be around her.**_

 _ **Wasn't she just a child born to a broken family with supernatural powers? Wasn't she considered a threat to everyone around her? Wasn't she a monster?**_

 _ **Without realizing it, her small fingers had started tracing the newly carved mark on her back. The wound was deep and would no doubt scar, but she didn't mind. It would serve as a grim reminder to her not to love. The dry blood on her hands was caused by her feeling that twisted, hurtful emotion and while true she could kill anyone, it was not her goal. There was no 'thrill' for her when she caused death and it wasn't even the least bit enjoyable for her. In fact, it was something she wanted to avoid all together.**_

 _ **So it was that day she cut off the ties between the heart and the brain in an attempt to not let pitiful and useless emotions get to her. Fear would no longer cloud her judgement, anger would not twist the reality of a situation, and love would never make her a fool.**_

 _ **Her thoughts were interrupted by the rustling of leaves behind her. The girl jumped up, thankful her sensei and his snake had finally arrived.**_

" _ **My student, I see you 'talked' to your parents before I could. I'm glad they allowed you to come and train with me." His voice, while laced with a humorous tone, was still serious and almost threatening. The girl, however, paid no mind to it as she had grown accustomed to it.**_

" _ **Yes sensei, my powers made them agree. Now we can train everyday. Let's go train." She was quick to the point and kept her bright blue eyes on her teacher, not even letting her eyesight waver when he sent a deadly glare to her.**_

 _ **The pale man took several brisk steps towards her and knelt down so they were about the same height. "What has made you start acting this way? Usually you are excited to see me, but you seem rather bored at the moment."**_

" _ **I realize my feelings made doing things hard, so I got rid of some of them."**_

"' _ **Some of them'? Only a few? Why not all of them?" The man, whether the girl realized it or not, was testing her.**_

" _ **I only got rid of the useless ones, like love. I kept hate and anger so I can do my jobs better. And I am a child born to hate." She turned around to show the marking on her back, which she felt start bleeding at her sudden movements. "See, I am hate."**_

 _ **His cold hand pressed firmly on her back, holding her still. "Quite the battle wound for a young child. I am pleased with your progress, my student." Orochi stood up again and turned the girl so she was facing him. "You will be the perfect tool. Are you ready to train?"**_

 _ **She nodded her head violently, wanting badly to escape her camp. "Yes, Orochi Sensei."**_

 _ **The pale man chuckled at her. "This may hurt. Sorry." He jabbed his icy fingers against the side of her neck, making her stand straight. Her head began to feel heavy along with her eyelids, causing her mind begin to feel foggy. The little girl's mouth was left open as she fell on her back, hitting the rough forest floor.**_

 _ **And with that, her world went dark.**_

By the way, to all you interested readers out there, I'm just reminding you that this story is on Wattpad and has over 30+ chapters already posted there. Thank y'all for reading! -Lee


	18. The Sand Boy: Part 17

"I WON'T WEAR THAT, DAMN IT!" I was shouting from the top of my lungs at Temari, who had pinned me against a fence and was trying to wrap a Suna headband to me. Kankuro was just rolling his eyes at us, seeing as I was throwing a childish tantrum and Temari looked like a psychotic lady attacking me.

"YOU HAVE TO WEAR IT! YOU ARE ONE OF US NOW!"

"NO I'M NOT! I WILL NEVER BE LIKE YOU GUYS!"

"I WISH THAT WERE TRUE! NOW PUT IT ON!"

"NO! BACK OFF, _TEMA_!"

"Ladies, ladies, calm yourselves. You're both ugly as fuck." After seeing we were not going to figure the situation out on our own, Kankuro finally decided to step in. Of course, he took the opportunity to insult us. "Let's handle this correctly. Kasai, you need to wear the headband. Even if you don't want to be, you are a Sunagakure Shinobi. Temari, don't be so rough with the girl. Baki said we have to keep her safe."

"But brother, we don't even like her!" The blonde screeched at Kankuro while waving her hands around frantically. Neither noticed when I wrapped the band around my cloth-covered neck.

The two continued their debate while I stood there awkwardly. I decided it would be best not to have any input into the conversation seeing as I would probably make Temari more furious. However, movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention.

There was a girl with bright pink hair yelling and punching a boy in an incredibly ugly orange jumpsuit. A group of small children was gathered around the fallen boy that I believed angered the annoying girl.

 _"Wait, I know them! The girl is the crazy fangirl, Sakura, and the boy is Naruto, the fox kid! I was supposed to go on a mission to grade their sensei! Maybe I should say hi..."_ My hand raised a bit in an attempt to wave at the group, but Temari slapped it down.

"These people are no longer your friends. Besides, we need to watch Kankuro."

"Huh?" I swiveled my head around to see her brother holding one of the younger kids up in the air. "Uh oh..."

"That hurt, brat." The paint fool had his eyes closed as he threatened the little kid named Konohamaru, which I learned after Naruto shouted his name.

"Stop it, we're going to get yelled at later..." I saw Temari glancing around cautiously, as if to make sure no one was around. My attention was pulled back by Sakura.

"Kasai...?" She sounded so weak. I wanted to talk to them, but the argument from earlier was stuck in my head. The siblings were right; I was one of them. She saw the look on my face and noticed the band tied loosely around my neck, for it shone with brilliance. "I'm sorry, I was joking around... But is that really you, Kasai? I thought you were-"

"HEY THERE, PUT HIM DOWN YOU STUPID JERK! BELIEVE IT!" The obnoxious boy yelled at Kankuro with fire in his eyes, but he ignored the leaf genin. It seemed the fox boy had not noticed me yet.

After a small but loud laugh, Kankuro told Temari, "Oh relax, I want to play around before _he_ comes here. Kasai, you wanna help me?" I shook my head and growled. The puppeteer was being more of a douche than normal.

 _"Gaara... I hadn't realized he wasn't here? When did he leave? Probably when Baki ditched us to go to the hotel."_

"Kankuro, he's the Hokage's grandson. Pick and choose your fights carefully." I seethed through clenched teeth. It had taken me some time to recognize the little boy, but that scarf was iconic to Konoha's streets. I had seem him dashing through market stalls all the time, trying to escape his stupid teacher.

Now the paint bastard was smirking at the wiggling Konohamaru, who also happened to be kicking Kankuro's stomach in a desperate attempt to escape. "You're a lively kid. Must be a family thing."

 _"He always ignores me about important things..."_

By this point Naruto was visibly shaking with anger. I saw him ready himself to charge at Temari's brother and I wanted to stop him, but when I looked over at the blonde I saw her shake her head.

"Why you-!" The fox boy had started running, his orange clothes blurring with his surroundings. He was trying to be brave, but he really should've just stayed back.

Another malicious smirk spread across Kankuro's face as he waved his fingers around. The puppeteer had used his chakra strings to make Naruto fall backwards. The poor lad had no idea what hit him.

"What was that?!"

"Its fuckin' magic. What do you think?" I mumbled while watching the scene unfold. They all ignored my presence.

Temari quickly smiled, for she saw what his brother did. "Hah, Konoha's Genins are pretty weak."

"Konohamaru!" The boy with snot trailing from his nose and a girl with a flaming blush spread across her face yelled out at the same time. Jeez, that boy had a fan club so early in his life?

"Hey kitty-boy!" I, by this point, was laughing my ass off. Naruto said what I had wanted to for a long time. "You're going to get it from me if you don't put him down!" Naruto threatened Kankuro again, but it was pointless. He had no chance against the Sand ninja.

Sakura proceeded to chokehold the idiot and tell him everything he had been doing wrong. I couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face, especially when he saw me. They must've been surprised to see me with some bullish Sand Shinobi. I would've been, too.

"Kasai...? Is that you...?" The blonde sounded so broken when he asked that. Why did the two team members sound so baffled by me? I had lived there for years. If he wanted to hang out with me so badly he could've just asked.

"You piss me off, kid." I heard Kankuro sneer, grabbing Naruto's attention. Oh boy, he was getting mad. He was raising his fist, preparing for a punch. "Yeah, I hate short people and, anyways, you're a smart ass for a person younger than me. It makes me want to break him."

A quick gasp escaped my lips. The others did the same at his words and I knew things were getting serious.

"Well, me and Kasai aren't responsible for what you do..." She shook her head slowly to show her slight disappointment in her sibling.

"Uh, Temari, its 'Kasai and I' not 'me and Kasai'. Do your research." Both of the siblings ignored my Grammar-Nazi moment.

"The short kids over there are going to get it after this one, alright?"

 _"Is this how people treat each other in Sunagakure? If so, I might not fit in well after all..."_ I thought to myself as the kids sniffled away their tears. _"He isn't usually this mean. Does he have somethin' against kids?"_

A soft 'thud' took my attention away. Kankuro had dropped the kid and was grasping his right hand. There was a small, grey pebble rolling to a stop on the ground. "What happened?" I whispered to Temari. She just turned to a nearby tree and stared. I did the same and saw the last Uchiha lounging up there, tossing a similar rock up and down.

"What do you think you're doing in our village?" He was so nonchalant about it all. It was something that bothered me about him; he didn't care.

"Oh, you..." I groaned while I studied him. He was just as I remembered him: annoying.

"SASUKE-KUN~!" Oh for Kami's sake, I forgot that Sakura was the crazy and obsessive stalker girl that had fallen madly in love with the stupid, emo heartthrob. I wanted to shove a sock down her throat to make her shut the hell up.

"Cute..." Temari muttered under her breath while blushing uncontrollably.

I facepalmed loudly at that. _"Not her, too..."_ I was doing the same thing as Kankuro and Naruto: glaring at Sasuke. I had never, ever liked that boy like the other crazy girls in the village. He was meaner and darker than me, which was a pretty difficult thing to do (At least, I thought it was).

I wasn't expecting him to return the expression on my face, but when he saw me he visibly grew tense. It really must've been surprising for me to be bearing the Sunagakure symbol on my headband.

"Look, another punk that has pissed me off..." The growl rose in Kankuro's throat and I really didn't want to get in between him and the Uchiha.

Shuffling closer to the paint fool, I quietly commented, "He could beat your ass, puppet boy. Like I said, pick your fights carefully."

"Get lost." Sasuke's command would've been taken seriously in the first place, but he decided it was absolutely necessary to crush the rock in his hand to dust as a further warning.

I scoffed, "Show-off..." Temari snickered at my remark, but was still blushing at the ravenette. By then the others were freaking out and Konohamaru was complaining to Naruto about how he wasn't cool like Sasuke.

Kankuro, after a few moments of straightening his clothes, recovered from the hit. "Hey, you, come down here." Both narrowed their eyes further, obviously showing strong disdain. "Kids like you who think they're so clever are the ones who I hate the most.

The paint fool gave me a side glance and I immediately caught on to what he was saying. "Why you-!"

Temari grabbed my shoulder and shoved me away, knowing I wouldn't be afraid to fight the puppeteer.

"Wait! Are you about to use crow?" She looked appalled at her brother as he started to slide the wrapped puppet from his back. I, too, was somewhat surprised by his actions. While I knew he had gotten flustered by this encounter, I had no idea it was going to be like this.

"Kankuro, don't. You know _he'll_ be furious." Referring to Gaara, I was hoping the puppeteer would realize the stupidity of the situation.

Of course, he didn't. It really shouldn't have surprised me.

I was about to take action when I heard a familiar voice from the tree. "Kankuro, stop that."

My crimson eyes immediately locked with Gaara's minty blue ones. He was hanging upside down from a branch on the same tree as Sasuke. Apparently the Uchiha hadn't seen the redhead before because he looked equally as shocked as the rest of the group.

I, on the other hand, just stood there with a smirk dancing on my lips. Quietly, I said to myself, "Great, the other show-off has arrived. And- ow!" Like the other times I did something wrong, the band at my wrist began to tighten. So maybe I didn't say my words softly enough...

"You're a disgrace to our village."

 _"Shit just got real."_

By that point, everyone appeared to be nervous and frightened. Kankuro barely could say, "G-Gaara."

I noticed even Sasuke start fidgeting a little on his tree limb. He was pretty shaken up by being snuck up on and had seemingly shrunk in his seat. It seemed like he had finally found an equal and worthy opponent.

Gaara, still hanging upside down with his arms crossed, asked, "Why do you think we came all the way here, to the Leaf Village?"

Of course I had some wonderfully colorful retorts for that question, but I decided not to voice any of them. The pain the sand bracelet caused was almost unbearable at times and I wasn't going to risk it seeing as Gaara wasn't particularly happy at the time.

"G-Gaara, p-please listen to me." Damn, Kankuro was stuttering. Looks like he really feared his short younger brother. "T-They lashed o-out first... A-And then K-Kasai m-made me t-threaten them a-and-"

"Hey!" I swatted the back of his head after Kankuro said that lie. I did nothing wrong.

"Shut up!" The redhead barked at the paint fool. "Or I'll kill you."

"Shit." Whispered under my breath, the only one who acknowledged my words was Temari, who nodded in agreement of course.

"U-Understood, I w-was wrong. I-I'm sorry... Really, I-I'm sorry..." The two siblings at my side got into a defensive stance. Without noticing it, they had shown how frightened they were of Gaara. I was sure Sasuke picked up on their actions.

Needing not to hear another meaningless word from Kankuro, Gaara turned his head to talk to the emo still in the tree. "I'm sorry about that."

I was nearly choking on spit when I gasped at his apology. _"What the actual hell?! Gaara was being decent to the Uchiha! Gaara doesn't do that 'nice' thing..."_

For too busy trying to breath again, I didn't see Gaara vanish into a cloud of sand and reappear by our group of Sand ninjas. "Let's go. We didn't come here to fool around with these kids."

Temari and I said nothing, mostly out of fear and respect, and Kankuro only told Gaara, "I know."

Our group of four had begun to walk off when we heard, "Hold it!" Great, Sakura. Does she not know when to be silent and not ask questions? Obviously not, because that was probably one of the worst times for her to speak to us.

"What is it?" Temari inquired, trying to not sound too frustrated.

"Judging from your headbands, you're all Ninjas from the Village Hidden in the Sand, right? Except, of course, Kasai. Now, without question, the Land of Fire..." She kept saying useless shit. We already knew about the damn treaty; we weren't complete fools. "So, state your purpose or else! Also, how is she here? She was-" Sakura's voice cracked and she couldn't finish her rant.

"Can it, Sakura. We don't have to answer you." As cold as ice, I responded to the pink haired girl. Sasuke smirked at me, proud that I had the backbone to say that. Naruto looked like he was about to murder me, seeing as he was head over heels for the smarty. She looked taken aback by my response, but she was just being a pest. Nobody gave a damn about her explanation.

We all looked back at their small and beaten crowd. "So this is what they mean by the darkest place being under the candlestick. Don't you know anything?" Temari, who was the one speaking, pulled out a paper from her pocket. "See, my permit! As you say, we're Sand Village Genins from the Land of Wind. The Chunin exams are being held here and we're here to participate in them. And she's with us now. That's all you brats need to know about the girl."

Naruto, who was pretty stupid compared to most kids his age, had to be told what the exams were. I personally had never taken them, but I had watched and advised one. While they were having their conversation, we once again tried to leave them. However, a certain ravenette decided to grab our attention again.

"Hey! You there, what's your name?" He had just leapt down from his branch and was standing a few feet ahead of the then watching group.

"Ah? Huh, m-me?" Temari, who had all of a sudden turned extremely feminine and girly, whipped around fast as lightning to look at the Uchiha. She placed her clammy hand to her chest and gave him her signature smile, but it was useless.

I was about to smack the backside of her head, but Sasuke interrupted me. "No, the gourd next to you." His dark eyes darted to me for a second before he added, "And what is she _really_ doing here?"

"Well, I, uh..." I tapped my finger on the underside of my chin and opened my mouth to further elaborate the situation, but Kankuro stuck his hand over my face. He shook his painted head left and right, signalling for me to be quiet. Pissed off, I punched him away from me. Kankuro fell to the ground and I resisted the urge to kick him.

Sure, there were times I wanted to strangled his scrawny neck, but he was part of my team. I needed to give him a _little_ respect.

Gaara, on the other hand, was able to answer. "I'm Gaara of the Desert. I have an interest in you as well. Ignore her." He paused briefly before continuing, "What's your name?"

"Sasuke Uchiha."

Like in the Hokage's office, silence inhabited the air around us. The two boys, both equally as intimidating, glared and frowned at each other. There was an unspoken challenge between the two, for both could tell how the other one was considered dominant and powerful. Tension was rising and it was becoming alarmingly uncomfortable, but the fox boy interrupted it.

"Hey! Hey! What about me? What about me?" He was jabbing a thumb at himself, trying to seem important and all.

It didn't even take a second for Gaara to evaluate Naruto. "Not interested."

"Kasai!" Sakura was gesturing me to come over to their crew, but I closed my eyes and turned around. I took a long, secret glance at Naruto and wondered what it was like to be him, ignored and shunned. Then I turned to Gaara and wondered if he had been like Naruto in that way.

 _"If you knew about the Nine-Tailed Beast imprisoned in him, would you be interested then?"_ I questioned in my head, wondering if maybe he knew they were alike if he would treat the hyper brat a little bit differently.

Finally, after many failed attempts to leave, our group managed to jump away from the stunned and mumbling group. Kankuro, who kept taking glances at Gaara, was practically sweating buckets. He appeared to be nervous of further scolding. Temari just seemed, well, sad. It was obvious her rejection by Sasuke had great effect on her. The redhead remained silent, which was _such_ a surprise. Gaara must have been satisfied with his new rival.

I couldn't really decide on what I felt. There was a hurricane of emotions flowing through me and none of them blended together smoothly.

Still, I could tell it was going to be a bumpy ride with my new crew and I wasn't prepared for it at all. Sounds like how I felt about my new home... Suna...


End file.
